If you're granted an interview at the most prestigious design firm in the country, how confident would you feel going into it? Many designers can relate to feeling nervous before or during an interview or while presenting their work.

To be a great designer, you must be able to communicate with confidence and clarity. What aspects of the interview are the most important? What do seasoned designers look for when hiring new designers? To find answers, I discussed the interview process with designers and directors from frog, Teague, Smart Design and 4moms. The stories they shared provide valuable insight for anyone who's preparing for a job interview or presentation. Nail these seven steps the next time you present or interview, and you'll be in good shape.

[Editor's Note: Looking to land your next dream job? Set up an online portfolio and check out design jobs on Coroflot.]

1. Practice

So, what's the best way to prepare? According to our pros, just practice. Just because you understand your project does not mean you'll be able to articulate it during a presentation. One of my favorite suggestions came from Russell Blanchard, Director of Design at Smart Design. He says, "Share your work with someone who knows nothing about design and ask them if they understand. Communication is the most important skill to have in an interview. If people can't follow your work, it won't hit home, even if the project is well-executed. Your work has to make sense to people." After sharing your work with a friend, grandparent or parent ask him or her to summarize it. If your work is easy to follow, it will make your job easier when presenting.

Peeler prototypes for the OXO line of hand-held utensils, created by Smart Design. Smart's work for OXO revolutionized the kitchen tools industry.

2. Prepare

Don't show up to an interview or presentation without everything you need. For example, even if you're told a computer would be provided for use, bring your laptop or tablet just in case. Preparedness is a sign of professionalism and helps build trust among clients and coworkers. You owe it to your audience to arrive prepared when you're given their attention. Elijah Wiegmann, Director of Design at 4moms says, "Asking if we have a computer for your thumb drive or to view your work on raises a flag. Have a bulletproof way to show your work, and then have a backup." Arriving prepared however, includes more than having your work ready to present.

Prepare for an interview by doing more homework than others who land interviews. Spend time learning about the company, its values and your interviewers. Go in there with enough knowledge to be able to have a conversation with your interviewer about their company, its culture and his or her responsibilities. "I like it when designers come in with a portfolio tailored to Smart Design." Blanchard shares. "For example, one designer began by highlighting one of Smart Design's company values. They proceeded by showing examples of how they did the same throughout various projects. It showed they understand what we do here."

Share your work with someone who knows nothing about design and ask them if they understand. Communication is the most important skill to have in an interview. - Russell Blanchard, director of Smart Design

3. Self-Edit

As designers, we tend to be fond of our own work. Our portfolio reflects the way we approach problems, seek solutions and communicate outcomes. A tremendous amount of work goes into creating its contents, so it may be difficult to choose what to show and what to omit. Roger Jackson, Creative Director at the Kitchen of Teague offers, "Just show your best work; in this case, less is more. You're better off leaving the interviewer impressed. Self-edit by reviewing your portfolio page-by-page and ask why. Make sure there's a takeaway for every page." If the page is weak, or doesn't communicate something about you or your skills, omit it.

Another self-edit strategy is to be aware of a first, second and third read. "There's a 5 second read, a 10 second read, and maybe a 30 second read if you're lucky," explained Steve Selzer, Creative Director of frog. Knowing what a viewer might take away from each level of read can help you decide if a page contributes or not. It's easy to forget that the person reviewing your portfolio might not devote as much time to each page as you think.

frog partnered with the founders of New Matter to co-develop the company's 3D printing ecosystem—from branding and identity system to the design of the printer, marketplace, and application.

4. Be Your Honest Self

When asked what the first thing he hopes to learn from an interviewee, everyone I spoke with offered a similar response: "Would I mind working, traveling or spending time around this person?" Your personality carries lots of weight during the interview process. If you land the job, you'll be spending lots of time with your coworkers. They want to be sure you're fun to be around. Elijah Wiegmann says, "There are too many horror stories of [designers] doing something cheesy in hopes of being memorable. That kind of thing usually ends up being the butt of hiring jokes." Think professional and pleasant, but don't try to act like someone you're not.

Being yourself also means identifying parts of your life and what those mean to your work. Steve Selzer mentions, "Be authentic. Bring context to your portfolio by sharing from your upbringing or cultural experiences and how that's affected your work." It's a great way to let the interviewer understand why you make decisions the way you do. Designers care about context.

frog's Milan studio

Russell Blanchard offered, "Put yourself into your work, which includes hobbies and what you do outside of design. Some young designers come in and try to convince us that they eat, breathe and sleep design and do nothing else, which is not realistic. If you have an oddball hobby or influence, celebrate it! It's your chance to be memorable."

An interview is more than just a test of technical skills. It's about identifying whether you're a cultural fit. It's within yours and your interviewers best interest for you to be transparent and honest.

5. Tell Stories

When it comes to sharing a project, grab attention with a good story. Roger Jackson suggests, "Don't get lost in the content of your project. Instead, get people excited about you as a person through storytelling. Share your thought process, your passions, point of view and inspiration." It's unlikely your design projects are 100% unique. But you are unique, so bring your stories to the table when sharing a project.

TEAGUE's collaboration with Sizemore Bicycles won the 2014 Oregon Manifest bike design competition.

Russell Blanchard thinks of every design project as a journey. "A journey can end abruptly, change for the better or worse, or surprise you. There will often be surprising turns and toil along the way." Share your project as a journey. Invite the audience with you—into your state of mind at the time—and explain to them how you reacted to all the unforeseen challenges.

6. Show the Ugly Ducklings

In true Ugly-Duckling fashion, often a crude prototype leads to a polished project. Designers admit to getting excited about small, hacked-together prototypes that prove a concept. Russell encourages designers to show their crude prototyping: "It takes confidence and guts to show the ugly stuff that plays part in leading to a solution." If the ugly beginnings played a crucial part in leading you to a design solution, then include them in your portfolio.

7. Engage

An interview should not be a one-sided conversation. Engaging with the interviewer will leave a good impression. Roger Jackson says, "Be attentive, make eye contact with everyone in the room, remember names and show you care. Show your passion and fire." Don't leave any of your interviewers with the impression that you don't want to be there, or get the job.

Asking good questions is another great way to show engagement. Russell mentioned that good questions can be something more personal. "Show that you care about that person or what he or she does at work," he said. By asking good questions, you show that you care and are thinking about this job as a long-term occupation.

Jackson says that by having a sense of where you want to go with the company you're interviewing with shows you care about it. "Speaking to each requirement the job posting outlines and how you meet those requirements, is a good way to show you're prepared," offers Jackson.

4moms innovative stroller design, Origami, folds down at a touch of a button and generates enough power through wheel rotation to charge a phone.

In Summary

The best preparation techniques for interviewing for an industrial design job include practicing your presentation with someone who knows little about design and showing up to the interview with a fool-proof means of showing your work. Make sure you self-edit to show only your best work and share yourself with your interviewers to add context to your portfolio. Tell stories to engage your audience and teach them about how you work. Show early prototypes and sketches because they're the seeds of brilliant solutions. Finally, remain engaged with the interviewers to show that you care about this opportunity. Do these and you'll have little to worry about the next time you present your work.

Photo courtesy of TEAGUE

Final Words of Wisdom:

Thanks to all the designers for sharing their experiences to help you improve your interview skills. Here's a quote from each. Who knows, perhaps you'll meet them during an interview.

Elijah Wiegmann, Director of Design at 4moms: "There's nothing better than an interviewee being able to trace and retrace the narrative thread of each project to give the entire body a great summary."

Russell Blanchard, Director of Smart Design: "Get on our radar and stay in touch. Don't overdo it, but try to be proactive. That'll give you a better chance at landing a job."

Roger Jackson, Creative Director at Teague : "Show your passion for the craft and discipline of design, not just the content of your portfolio."

Steve Selzer, Creative Director of frog: "If getting in front of people to talk makes you nervous, find a way to get over it. Try acting, or improv; for me, karaoke helped."

The last garbage can redesign we looked at addressed the problem of suction and stuck bags. The Bruno Smartcan is looking, rather ambitiously, to solve a slightly more sophisticated issue involving suction.

The Bruno design features a battery-powered vacuum integrated at the bottom that, once swept towards, automatically activates via sensors. But it not only sucks up the offerings; it then whisks them up through a tube and deposits them into the garbage bag itself. Because the nozzle is center-mounted at the bottom—the precise location where the foot pedal usually is—the lid is made to open when the user waves their hand over the top, triggering a motion sensor.

While the can will take standard-sized kitchen garbage bags, the company behind it is also selling their own custom bags; they're reckoning consumers will buy them for their convenience, in that they fit into a "storage pod" at the interior rear of the can that makes them easier to dispense. 

Also in an effort to introduce convenience—extraneous ones, I think—they're offering an app that reminds you of when garbage day is, and when to buy new bags.

Frankly speaking, I'm skeptical of the vacuum feature. First off, since the aperture needs to be narrow to generate adequate suction, that means it does not correspond with the width of your average broom. I'm guessing you'll require significantly more passes than shown in the video to get your average collection of dust bunnies to disappear.

Secondly, though they briefly mention a filtration system, there's no mention made of the internal tube; how does one clear it if becomes clogged? Pet hair, for instance, could create a problem.

Thirdly, I'd like to see how the vacuum ejects its contents into the bag. Will it generate a dust cloud that's going to coat the underside of the lid, making itself known each time you open the lid?

My doubts aside, enough consumers have become convinced of the can's worthiness that it's already been Kickstarted; at press time it was at $65,000 on a $50,000 goal, and the can—which will eventually retail for $229, aside from the few $159 Early Bird specials left—is expected to ship by October of this year. I eagerly await the reviews, to see if the developers can make this thing work as advertised.

An old Arab saying has it that "When the camel stumbles, the knives come out." Perhaps the modern-day version, applicable to much of the world, should be "When anything happens, the phones come out."

Which is to say, people's first reaction these days to tornadoes, beachside brawls, sporting events, police activity, etc. is to pull their phones out and start recording it. Everyone's looking to capture that million-dollar moment when Blake Griffin posterizes Aron Baynes, and woe is you when you run out of storage space the moment before the twister takes the roof off of the barn or someone's civil rights get violated.

An app called Vaptur takes care of this. It still requires you to train your camera on the scene, but rather than recording continuously and eating up all of your precious gigs, the app essentially buffers real life. On-screen you see what's happening in real-time, but a small picture-in-picture shows real time minus eight seconds; that way when something noteworthy happens, you turn to your device and record from the delayed feed, capturing just the part you want.

Sound confusing? It ain't, as you'll see by this demo:

The app is currently at its introductory price of $1.99, but is slated to go up to $2.99 (presumably when enough of you citizen journalists start downloading it).

Finding success as a maker is never easy, but if you can find the right niche and execute your craft well, you've got a shot. And it's fair to say Chelsea Miller's got a shot.

The knifemaking Miller started out just four years ago, and according to Bloomberg is now back-ordered for six to eight weeks and puts in seven days a week at her Brooklyn shop to meet orders. Miller's product is unusual: She makes kitchen knives from reclaimed horse-grooming tools.

Under Miller's torch and grinding machines, a former Farrier's rasp becomes a chef's knife, the teeth left intact, the non-cutting edge left serrated for what utility they might offer; Miller uses the rough surfaces to grate cheese and garlic in her test kitchen.

What's interesting is that Miller began learning to make knives as a way of connecting with her father, a blacksmith and carpenter, who had fallen ill in 2010; upon returning to the family farm she picked up the craft working with her father and brother. Initially she gave them to friends as gifts, but those friends eventually pushed her to begin selling them at the Brooklyn Flea, which she did, years ago, for $200; demand being what it is, at present day the chef's knives sell for $800, with the smallest cheese knife being the entry-level at $200.

You may be wondering: Are the knives any good, would a pro chef use them? We have to say she's received a rousing endorsement: New York's famous Eleven Madison Park has placed an order with her.

Filmmaker Andrew Baker of  Airfield Films  is currently working on a documentary featuring Miller called "Beekeeping on Pluto." Here's the teaser:

Via Artnau

People don't just struggle to stay organized at home and at work; they are also challenged by staying organized when they're mobile. And for many people,  being mobile means being on a bike as they commute to and from work, go shopping, visit friends, etc.

Pannier bags are one solution to that challenge. The Bradley Bike Bag from Hill & Ellis is an upscale product, made of leather, with a number of interesting features. For example, those leather straps on the side are reversible; the other side is reflective to provide extra visibility when needed without looking tacky at other times. As with many bike bags that aren't waterproof, it comes with a waterproof rain cover. This bag will fit a 15" laptop sleeve; some others in the line are smaller and only fit a 13" laptop,

Here's what the back of the bag looks like when closed, as seen on the similar Betty Bike Bag. There are no exposed hooks to jab the cyclists or snag their clothing.

And here's what that compartment looks like when it's in use. The pannier clips come from Germany; they are spring-loaded so they can attach to any pannier rack from 6mm to 16mm. Catherine Ellis told me via email that "the lower flap goes down against the bag so the underside covers the leather on the back of the bike so it doesn't rub during the ride and the top flap rests on the top of the pannier rack and helps protect the bag against any dirt from the wheel."

The The Sac from Linus Bike works well for the rider who wants a minimalist design that's not too expensive, that will carry a fair amount of stuff, and that doesn't scream "bike bag" when it's being carried around. This one has no reflective stripes. It's made from waxed canvas and a coated durable base, so it's water resistant; it has a magnetic closure and one interior pocket. There's a detachable shoulder strap, which for some odd reason is not color-coordinated to the bag.

The Linus Sac has exposed rubberized clips, but they're unlikely to catch on the rider's clothes. For exposed clips, they're pretty inconspicuous. And they fit on a wide range of racks.

The Chrome Saddle Bag Rolltop Pannier 20 is a design for riders who want a truly waterproof bag and/or those who want one with no mounting hardware (inconspicuous or not) on the bag once it's removed from the bike. To make this work, the bag works with a rack adapter, which will make it harder (if not impossible) to use the bike with other pannier bags, unless the adapter is removed. And the adapter won't work with all bike racks. 

While many bike bags will hold a laptop, this one comes with an integrated laptop sleeve that fits a 15" Macbook Pro. That will make things easy for people like me, who won't carry a laptop in a bag without plenty of padding.

I've read reports that the bag can be difficult to attach to the adapter, but this owner says that it got much easier over time, as the fabric softened up. 

Some cyclists may prefer a design like the Noe Commuter Pannier Tote Backpack from Timbuk2, with its external pockets making it easy to grab a water bottle and other items. There are also internal pockets, which some riders will find helpful for organizing the contents. (Some people really like pockets; others prefer to just use pouches or other organizers that they move from bag to bag.) But those external pockets aren't going to work well in the rain unless the contents can get wet without a problem.

The bag is easy to connect to a bike rack, and it also converts to a backpack. The hooks are nicely hidden away when they aren't being used.

For cyclists who would rather not deal with a pannier, a design like the Armitage Satchel from Po Campo could be a good alternative. It's extremely easy to attach to the bike, assuming the rack is long enough. It's got a zippered pocket inside and another one outside. It's made of waxed canvas, with  a polyurethane coated nylon lining to help keep contents dry. That's a faux-leather trim; this bag is vegan, which will be important to some riders.

Some cyclists may prefer handlebar bags, and there are many designs for these, too. This bike tote from Uncommon Goods fastens to the bike with two buckled loops; purchasers agree it's very easy to take on and off. The shoulder strap tucks inside when the bike's being ridden. There are no fancy features here, but some riders just need a simple product.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are designs like the Paloma Handlebar Bag from Swift. This bag also mounts to the bike easily, but in a very different way, using the Klickfix Handlebar Adaptor. The bag won't work with bikes that have cross-top brakes levers. 

The Paloma bag is lined with X-Pac, a light and waterproof ripstop textile; the bag also has two rain flaps. There's a clear map case on the top, which can also hold whatever mobile device is being used for navigation.

Swift lets buyers customize their bags, selecting from over 20 choices for the body and the front pocket, nine choices for the trim, and six for the thread. The products are all handmade in Seattle by this five-person company; supporting such a business will appeal to some purchasers. 

The exterior of the Green Guru handlebar bag is made from upcycled bicycle tubes; the inner lining is made from recycled plastics. That's supposed to keep hot food hot, and cold food cold. Most purchasers said it does that well; one wrote about keeping food cool even in warm Florida weather, and another said she uses it to transport both popsicles and burritos. Yet another person mentioned carrying beer.

And speaking of beer: Cyclists with top-tube bikes will find there are designs specifically for toting beer and other bottled beverages. This one is from Donkey Products, and it's made from canvas and Velcro. There's no insulation there, but purchasers said it worked well for carrying bottles to a BYO restaurant, bringing them home after visiting local craft breweries, etc.

There's also an active Kickstarter for three products from Roo, including The Sixer. It's similar to Donkey's 6Pack, but it's made from leather and held in place with four snaps.

Scotty Lewis describes bending wood as "one of the most exciting and magical things a woodworker will ever experience," and the lure is easy to see: The ability to shape Mother Nature's product to our design indicates a mastery of material and allows for unusual shapes.

We've looked at plenty of ways to bend wood before, from the Curvomatic to a grand-piano-sized jig, from steaming it within a plastic bag to using a laser. Now we'll look at a fifth method, this one ideal for smaller-sized pieces. Lewis has a step-by-step tutorial on how he makes his bentwood salad tongs using a propane torch, a piece of metal pipe and some simple jigs.

While Lewis' tutorial is the best and most detailed we've seen, going in depth on getting the correct temperature (and measuring it accurately with a stovepipe thermometer), wood thicknesses and what types of wood will and won't bend best, we realize some of you will want to see the process in video. For that we turn to Garret Glaser demonstrating how he uses the hot pipe method to make wooden strapping:

New York Design Week kicks off tomorrow with hundreds of exhibitions, installations, talks, openings and parties lighting up the five boroughs. To help navigate the options, our editors scoured the listings to present a concise guide to this year's festivities. Here's our top 10 picks for New York Design Week 2015:

Architecture and Design Film Festival for BKLYN Designs at the Brooklyn Expo Center

ADFF will be screening eight short films throughout BKLYN Designs, focusing on Brooklyn and/or made by Brooklyn filmmakers. The range of topics includes dumpsters turned swimming pools in Gowanus, a look at the progressive technologies used in the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Greenpoint, a portrait of Stefan Sagmeister, a visit to Piet Oudolf's gardens, and the making of SITU Studio's Design Lab at the New York Hall of Science. A special panel discussion about design and film—moderated by ADFF Director Kyle Bergman—will be held on Sunday May 10th. Opens May 8.

Feed Me at Los Perros Locos

What does the future of food look like? This concept is taken up by designers across the country in 20 provocative proposals ranging from market-ready products to visionary concepts. Visitors can expect to find a host of imaginative and pleasantly wacky ideas, including scratch and sniff vitamins, nasal flavor enhancement accessories, and wearable pizza. Sure to be an unconventional respite from NYDW fairs! Opens May 8.

Liz Collins for American Design Club at Collective Design

Textile designer Liz Collins is installing a woven tapestry, "that places architecture and design in conversation." A performance-based installation, the project will invite attendees to witness and participate in the installation and will evolve throughout the fair. As fans of Liz's home collection, we hope to see some of the themes she explores in her throw pillows, blankets and carpets in her architectural installation. Opens May 14.

Colony for Tribeca Design District

This jewel box of design in Chinatown represents the spirit of collaboration and community in American design. The space itself is the showroom for a design co-op consisting of 15 independent North American designers. Founded by the design editor Jean Lin, during New York Design Week the showroom will also host the fourth Reclaim NYC exhibition. Originally a response to the devastation of Superstorm Sandy, the Reclaim exhibitions have become a way for designers to create a one-off installation—the proceeds from the sale goes on to support a philanthropic organization of the designers' choice. Opens May 14 for Tribeca Design District.

The Principals at Sight Unseen

Brooklyn-based designers The Principals work across architecture, design and technology to create interactive installations and design objects that, "expand our understanding of the world, connecting utility with a universal sense of wonder." At this year's Sight Unseen OFFSITE, escape the chaos of the fairs with a trip to the Dynamic Sanctuary, an immersive installation that uses light to reflect the biorhythms of participants. Opens May 15.

Field Experiments at Moiety Gallery

Field Experiments will be presenting their newest project, Play as Work, in a visual and participatory exhibition at the Moiety Gallery. Over the course of two weeks, the design collective will host a series of programs. Field Experiments is a nomadic design collective that creates whimsical objects from every day materials, interactions and environments. Their breakout show last year at Sight Unseen's OFFSITE was a wonderful lens into their process—working with Balinese artisans, the designers created a collection of 50 objects that bound household products with craft process to redefine the concept of a souvenir. Opens May 15.

Matter Made 2015 Collection at Matter

Matter's downtown showroom space will be filled with the retailer's 2015 collection. The rich offering will include new lighting designs from Jaime Gray's Matter Made collection featuring the latest LED technologies, as well as new designs from Philippe Malouin, Ana Kras, Vonnegut Kraft and Visibility. Opens May 16. 

Ward Bennett at Project No. 8

Hermann Miller and Geiger host a site-specific installation designed by Various Projects  highlighting the "sensual minimalism" of iconic New York designer Ward Bennett. The show will offer a rare opportunity for visitors to interact with archival furniture pieces and see first hand Bennett's refined approach to materials and craft. Opens May 16.

This is for Everyone: Design for the Common Good at MoMA

MoMA's latest design exhibition questions the democratization of design in our digital culture. The eclectic result—curated by  Paola Antonelli—features classics like the Kikkoman Soy Sauce bottle to a wearable, 3D printed dress by design collective Nervous System. Ongoing.

Pathmakers at the Museum of Arts and Design

This revolutionary exhibition reconsiders the vital role that women creatives played in the definition of postwar modernism during the 50's and 60's. History is rewritten here—the first survey dedicated to analyzing the role of women in design— through examples of trailblazing women working across the arts and design. Ongoing.

When you're cutting all the way through a material, whether you're using a track saw, a radial arm saw or a CNC mill, you need something sacrificial beneath it. Over time, these spoilboards become so scarred with kerf marks or bit channels that you toss them (or resurface them in the case of the CNC mill). Thus most of you with shops are used to seeing stuff like this:

So it goes at marble processing facilities, where a gargantuan version of a radial arm saw slices through sheets of marble and into the sacrificial boards below. These boards can't be resurfaced—if you sent them through a planer, the stone dust lining the kerf would make short work of the cutting heads—and even if they could, they'd be too thin to offer the necessary support. So as soon as they're more kerf than surface, the boards go into the scrap pile.

Andrea Forti and Eleonara Dal Farra spotted these wasteboards and figured out a better use for them. Forti and Dal Farra are the duo behind Italy's Alcarol studio, and they're driven by "an impetus to generate a real ennoblement of the object and the material through a courageous and unconventional creative process, resulting in items that are both functional and charming." Their Marble Ways Dining Table—which debuted at Spazio Rossana Orlandi during Milan Design Week last month—fits the mission and the material here perfectly.

The kerf marks already provide an attractive pattern, being perfectly straight, yet randomly spaced; all that's needed is for the duo to level the tops with epoxy resin, providing a durable and see-through flat surface that maintains the visual effect beneath. As a bonus, the resin also traps the stone dust in the kerf marks, providing some subtle marble bling.

Here's a video of the process:

And we're live! Our editors have collected the best exhibitions, events, talks and parties for New York Design Week in a handy, mobile-friendly map. Bookmark the site on your phone now: core77.com/nydesignmap and sort by date, neighborhood or event type and navigate while you're on-the-go.

This year's online guide includes over 150 events as part of the larger NYCxDesign initiative which includes ICFF, Frieze, retail installations, museum exhibitions and student thesis shows. This year, we welcome the return of BKLYN Designs and applaud the newly launched Tribeca Design District. Downtown darlings Sight Unseen's OFFSITE has moved uptown and Industry City is becoming a destination of its own with NYCxDesign kicking off festivities tomorrow with an epic party.

Check out the Core77 New York Design Week Map now and don't miss our editors picks for the 10 best things to see this week!

To create a flipbook, all you need is a pen and paper, right? If you want to do the standard boring types of flipbooks, then yeah, sure. But self-described "remix artist" Scott Blake has come up with a more interesting method using a hole puncher:

Eat your heart out, all of you motion graphics/After Effects jockeys.

Blake's got animations of more styles of hole puncher flipbooks on his website.

For the next three days, The Brooklyn Expo Center will be abuzz with the latest innovations from the design-minded borough during the run of BKLYN Designs—the official launch for the festivities of NYCxDESIGN. "The show began in 2003 as one of the first focused on putting Brooklyn designers on the map. Now, after 12 years in Dumbo, we're exhibiting for the first time in Greenpoint and we're really excited to be within such a vibrant creative community," says Kristin Coleman of Novitá Communications, one of the firms who played an instrumental role in organizing the show.

The High Line Shop features a curated selection of items including Mark Dion's whimsical field guide. 

The rich list of exhibitors and robust additional programming—panel discussions, workshops, demos, and even Brooklyn home tours organized by Dwell—approach Brooklyn's design landscape from multiple points of view. "Of course there is furniture, but that bleeds over into other areas and we really wanted to highlight that this year," Coleman points out. In that vein, the AN/AIANY New Practices Lounge presents the work of seven local, emerging architecture firms while Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF) will be screening eight films on loop throughout the event. [Editor's note: ADFF is one of our editors' picks for this year's design week.] This synergy among disciplines is felt throughout, where collaboration abounds. "There is a focus on collective spaces, like the Urban Chandy Loft where 6-7 designers came together between furniture, lighting and apparel." Similarly, a marketplace section called BKLYN BUYS brings together a host of retail items ranging from past and current issues of CLOG, to ceramics by BTWCeramics for By Brooklyn, and selections from the High Line Shop.

Summer Moore's line of woven accessories evidence her expertise in the craft, which she perfected during a residence in Cappadocia, Turkey. 

Drawing on Danish weavings, macrame patterns, and Shaker furniture, Kate Casey's most recent creations for Peg Woodoworking are a series of graphic, woven chairs. 

Brooklyn designer Hana Getachew launches her new textile brand, Bolé Road, featuring traditional textiles sourced in Ethiopia.

"A lot of people have a preconceived notion associating Brooklyn designers with wood," explains Coleman, but this year the focus is on detail-oriented pieces and an experimental material approach, combining metal, concrete, resin, and leather with traditional woodworking. A series of explorative textile designs caught our eye, from the macrame and Shaker inspired woven chairs made by Peg Woodworking's Kate Casey, to the exquisite handwoven jewelry by Summer Moore of LESH, and the launch of Bolé Road textiles, an inspiring marriage of modern patterns and traditional craft, sustainably made in Ethiopia.

Interior designer Christopher Coleman carried his signature use of bright colors into his latest collection of design objects. 

Jill Malek's wallpaper is actually an edible potato based wafer, while the brick pattern is silkscreened chocolate. 

Traditionally, the show is a launchpad for emerging designers, but this year the inaugural Alumni Gallery is a focal point of the event. "We wanted to put a spotlight on the designers who launched their careers at the show, maybe 10-12 years ago, and have since evolved to become established names in the industry," explains Coleman. The curated area features new work from designers like Jill Malek (whose unique and playful edible wallpaper is a must!), DYAD, and Igloo Play, among others.

BKLYN Designs is open May 8-9 from 10am-7pm, and May 10 from 11am-6pm at 73 Noble Street in Brooklyn. 

If you're at all like me, the last year will have seen you jump wholehearted on the sustaining trend for the regreening of urban life—giddily hoarding an array of shoots and shrubbery in your living and working environments in a desperate attempt to compensate for lack of time outdoors and connection with nature. While your enthusiasm for your photosynthesising friends was initially no doubt high, the green dream probably lost some of its lustre on the return from the first business trip or weekend away—greeted with a sorry sight of limp leaves and fallen foliage reminding you why you couldn't trust yourself with that dog you really wanted in the first place.

Fortunately, so strong and persistent are our desires to marry the wholly incompatible modern ideals of frantic work/play schedules and plant-life cohabitation and nurturing that a whole raft of folks are turning this existential crisis into a design problem.

If you've been keeping up with our coverage from Milan you probably caught a glimpse of the leafy arrangements of Netherlands based Pikaplant—a start-up of sorts aiming to make the upkeep of indoor greenery that little bit easier. Their latest ware 'Tableau" is an desktop automatic indoor irrigation system that the team have just launched a campaign to fund on Kickstarter.

Position plants as you with on the Tableau's tableau

Fill up the water vase and slot into place

Let your plants get on with it

'Tableau' is an impressive simple way to keep your little bit of nature alive. Comprising of only a fabric covered tray, plant pots with holes at the bottom and a water tank with a clever valve system that releases 30 days worth of water for up to three plants without the use of any electronics. Rather than just drip feeding plants consistently, the bi-valve system that controls the water flow from the reservoir to the base is sensitive to humidity and pressure— releasing hydration in a 'wet-dry-cycle' that mimics natural weather patterns and makes for happier, healthier plants.

Over in Milan, Pikaplant also showed of a similar bookcase-sized 'vertical garden' variation of the system. Also using no electricity, the water tank at the top of structure releases water in an similar ebb-and-flow manner to let the plants take up only as much liquid as they need.

The 'Altrove' is the intravenous drip to indoor inprisoned pot plants

Other designers are offering up solutions to this age old wanna-have-plants-don't-wanna-look-after-plants problem. Milan based industrial designer duo Alessio D'Andrea and Vincenzo Vitiello of Lab. Fabrici, offer up an alternative route to indoor irrigation with Altrove—looking like a cross between Mathmas floor lamp and a medical drip; complete with rugged leather strap to position the water vessel. 

Much more simplistic than the 'Tableau' the 'Altrove' releases water with an on off value—presumedly drip feeding the plant in a consistent manner that would inevitably require some monitoring.

Simpler again—an oldie(r) but a goodie—the lightbulb-like Waterworks by Dutch designers House of Thol (these Dutch clearly got this house plant thing down). A terracotta spike is pushed into the soil to funnel water gradually from the volume of the bulb-like vase. The natural porousness of the earthenware releases water to the plant gradually—the flow being determined by how much of the surface area of the spike that has been left unglazed.

If these watering devices sound great but still far too demanding for your chaotic lifestyle, Pikaplant also offer up the perfect solution to the nature deprived plant killer. Pikaplant 'Jars' contain plants that naturally recycle gases and water in their own humid biotope—the plants surviving with next to zero maintenance for up to an impressive 12 months.

I was disappointed to find that my lazy body can defeat even the most expensive ergonomic chair. No amount of fancy adjustable features will stop me from eventually slouching as I become more absorbed in work.

I'm not alone in this, and to address the problem, entrepreneur and sciatica-pain sufferer Katherine Krug has collaborated with two industrial designers to produce an object that seems it will end slouching once and for all. Called Better Back, the device is not a chair at all, but a wearable harness that "stabilizes your pelvis, [restores] your spine's natural curvature, and provides lumbar support."

Looks kooky, you say, or maybe you doubt people will want to wear it? If the pledging amounts are any indication, you're wrong, at least on the latter point. Krug was seeking a measly $12,500 to get her design Kickstarted, and at press time it was at $958,799, meaning it's been 7,670% funded. There are still some $49 units left (the device is expected to retail for $99), but you'd better hurry—the campaign ends in a few days.

The majority of professional design software today allows designers to automate specific actions, which are manually scripted to generate a specific and predictable output. This type of automation optimizes the speed of performing routine tasks, but does little else. The future of automation for the professional designer will instead open up completely new possibilities.

This new kind of automation will augment the designer's toolkit by improving the work, surfacing hidden connections, and inspiring in novel ways. Automated design tools will not just save time; they will amplify the designer's capabilities. They will help analyze a problem and explore possible solutions at a speed, volume, and level of sophistication outpacing anything that would be possible for a human designer. Future designers will do better work as automation begins to add real value to the design process.

This is an optimistic take on automation, presented at a time when others in the professional community are expressing concern about applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to creativity and design. Advancing the role of automation in design does not mean creating robot designers able to fully reproduce and extend the work of human designers. Google's self-driving cars can parse a lot of inputs, and Deep Mind's video game playing agents can learn through trial and error, but they do not exhibit creativity or an understanding of the human context. Design is a very different type of challenge for artificial intelligence because it is initially concerned with identifying meaningful problems to solve, and only then invests itself in producing valid answers. Formalizing that process, in order to reproduce it through automation, is a lofty goal.

There are, however, promising developments that indicate automation in design can create value. For example, TheGrid—a startup in San Francisco—is already building technology that will allow designers to introduce algorithms in the design toolkit. The company is currently beta-testing what they call the "first artificial intelligence platform that creates websites," which means that their product will build a unique, self-optimizing website around the content and constraints fed to it. That type of technology has the potential to put an end to low-value activities currently performed by designers (e.g. personalization of templates, data entry, etc.), empower non-designers to achieve quality results, and give professional designers the possibility to scale design approaches through the use of algorithms. 

[Editors Note: Leigh Taylor, Chief Creative Officer of TheGrid, explains how scalable design will change the way we build websites here.]

This type of pioneering work will bring a radical paradigm shift in design: the designer provides instructions to automate design decisions. Automation no longer only serves up repeatable and predicable solutions, but becomes a tool that expands design possibilities.As this type of transformative automation continues to advance, here a few perspectives on how it is going to improve the designer's toolkit.

1. Design Research: Richer and More Insightful

In the research phase designers build a deep understanding of the target audience. During this phase designers capture a vast array of information in written, audio, and visual form. The material is analyzed and synthesized in combination with other data (e.g. market analysis and quantitative research), with the goal of uncovering patterns and making connections that generate insights for the creation of relevant design concepts.

Designers would benefit from tools that automate the collection and organization of data. At frog we envisioned a new kind of research toolkit based on distributed sensors, which enables designers to not only amplify the quality of information but also extend the research into new areas (e.g. accurate measurements of air quality, noise levels, and the strength of data coverage). This initiative addresses the challenge of pre-processing information captured during research, in order to make it available while the team is still in the field. Automating the preliminary organization and display of information improves both the quality and the efficiency of the research.

2. Design Inspiration: Broader and Faster

Design research and other discovery activities lead to a set of data that must be reviewed for patterns. In the same way algorithms currently support music discovery (e.g. Rdio, Pandora, Spotify), the next generation of design software will automatically curate knowledge and inspiration relevant to the design objective.

Designers will define the scope of automated searches using a spectrum that is very specific to their design goals on one end, and very broad on the other end. The software—or inspiration engine—will organize the retrieved assets based on the criteria defined by the designer, as well as categories and frameworks suggested by the tool itself. Designers will work together with the software to make connections between different types of content and highlight both analogies and patterns.

The search will continue in a more discrete range once designers identify meaningful connections by combining and prioritizing sets of inspirations. Custom scripts, modules, plug-ins, and additional content libraries will increase the software's relevance to specific fields of design. Integration with computing platforms will maximize accuracy, collaboration, and processing speed.

3. Design Exploration: More Concepts, Less Labor

The exploration of design concepts is a process that combines several types of knowledge: business context, design intent, user insights, relevant design inspirations and best practices.

In the near future, advanced algorithms will take the designer's germinal concepts—perhaps about a digital service, or a physical product or space—and explore possible variations and combinations at an extraordinary volume and speed. In the time that it currently takes a designer to envision one concept, an automated exploratory design tool will generate thousands of design options based on the same concept description, and even rank them according to several success criteria such as extensibility and performance. The designer will then select the most promising design alternatives for further development and validation.

Designers will have more time to come up with concepts because automated tools will take on the labor-intensive task of exploring all of the valid options according to given constraints and variables. Autodesk is already a pioneer in this space with Project Dreamcatcher, and it follows that others should pay close attention to the possibilities in this area as new tools are developed.

4. Design Productivity: Personal and Flexible

Once the most promising concept or combination of concepts is finally defined, the designer needs to translate the concept into a coherent solution built on an extensible design language system. It is a complex and labor-intensive process that requires several design iterations. Currently that process is shaped in large part by a series of rigid design tools available as different applications, which are loaded with features rarely needed at the same time. Design tools should instead adapt themselves to the designer's approach.

In the same way that modern web-based applications are developed with open architectures that adapts to user preferences (thanks to a modular structure), design software will be reduced to its constituent programs and delivered as interoperable services. A new kind of automated design platform—or orchestrator—will provide the designer with the needed tools at the right time in the creative process. Functions that are today available only in one form, and exclusively as part of software packages, will be served instead as individual and interconnected services. The predictive logic and machine learning capabilities of the "orchestrator" will surface, recommend, and combine design tools as needed.

Designers will assemble their own toolkit, which will act like an assistant constantly learning how to be more efficient at meeting the designer's needs.

5. Design Development: Autodevelopment

The design of digital products and services is one with software development. Coding is required to turn concepts into interactive simulations and prototypes, improve the design, and eventually make it real. Development frameworks and automated tools such as Macaw and Webflow aim to reduce the labor associated with common activities and are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Design-to-code algorithms will eventually support the conversion of a user interface design pattern or template into usable code across different frameworks. In the future automated tools will change the way products are built by allowing developers to write code, rules, and constraints at a high level of abstraction.

By exploring the areas of opportunity for automation, we will move toward a new era where designers will have unprecedented tools that are personal, smart, and able to assist with design work in novel ways. These new tools will not, however, change the fundamental nature of the designer's work; determining the right problem to solve, and identifying the design solution that best advances the human experience, requires distinctive human qualities.

There are two benefits to ordering something heavy, like a washing machine, on Amazon. The first is that you don't have to drive to Home Depot and hump it in and out of your hatchback. The second is that you allow your local deliveryperson to maintain his deltoids, saving him money on a gym membership.

Other than that, having a package delivered to your doorstep can actually be a hassle. If a signature is required and you're at work, you're S.O.L.; in both rural and urban areas, an untended package left in front of a door invites theft; and some businesses refuse to deliver to residences at all.

That's why Amazon's planned drone delivery service is starting to sound pretty alluring. The recently-released details of Amazon's patent application reveal some surprising finds that have advocates in a tizzy: Apparently they're planning a "Bring it to me" delivery option, whereby the drone knows the physical location of your person—presumably tracking you via your smartphone—and brings the package directly to you. Not so practical for a washing machine, but certainly convenient for smaller items. Coupled with Amazon's plans for 30-minute delivery times, this would bring instant wish fulfillment to absurd levels.

The technical obstacles are manifold, but if Amazon can overcome them, the face of package delivery will change in unexpected ways. For example, this month Audi is starting a novel trial in Munich, in partnership with Amazon and DHL Parcel. Buyers can specify their car as the delivery point; the three companies then collaborate to not only track your car's location, but remotely pop the trunk open so the delivery guy can get the package inside—all without you being present.

What would really impress us is if they could do this whilst the car was moving. You're driving down the autobahn, a drone catches up to you, the trunk opens, and the package gets dropped inside. Of course that sounds fanciful, but the concept of e-mail would have sounded similarly impossible to a letter carrier from olden days.

Texas-based Billy Boxes wants to bring some design consideration to the back of your pickup, specifically to your truck bed toolbox. Lifelong pickup driver Levi Smith, raised on a cattle ranch, has been hacking together his own custom boxes for years, and is now betting others can benefit from his creations.

Smith has wrangled together a series of aluminum extrusions, velcro straps, adjustable dividers, LED lighting, a secure locking system, nifty rubber grips and more to provide a user-customizable solution. Here's how it all works:

Though the company claims Billy Boxes are, " designed to fit almost all full size trucks on the market today [whether] foreign or domestic, half ton or one ton, fleet side or dually," potential buyers will have to take some measurements and check the fit guide; at the moment, it doesn't appear the boxes are actually custom-made to specific truck models.

Pickup owners among you: Are you and your brethren more likely to build your own solution, or will this be a viable business?

Cash is expensive to manufacture. As we saw in our article on The U.S. Mint's Production Materials Problem, a penny costs 2.4 cents to make, while a nickel costs more than double its actual value. But governments continue to manufacture physical currency because previously, that was the only way to enable commerce and hence, economic growth.

Cash is also expensive (and time-consuming) to use. A 2013 Tufts University study found that using cash costs American citizens and businesses some $200 billion annually, which boils down to $1,739 per household. And sadly, those costs are disproportionately borne by the poor.

Theft ($40 billion from businesses and $500 million from individuals) and ATM fees of $8 billion make up a portion of these overall costs. But the majority of these costs come in terms of time: the average American spends 28 minutes per month traveling to get cash.

It probably comes as no surprise that the cost of cash is higher for the poor and unbanked Americans. The unbanked pay on average about $3.66 per month more than banked consumers. Poor Americans carry larger amounts in cash and pay more fees for cash transactions than wealthier Americans. Those without bank accounts use greater amounts of cash in a month than those with bank accounts.

One obvious solution would be to create affordable banking methods for the poor. Once we accomplish that, we can take the radical step that Denmark is taking: Ending cash, period. 

The country has announced that next year they'll stop printing the stuff altogether, meaning there's going to be some sweet printing presses for sale on Danish eBay. And the Danish government has announced a new proposal that will allow merchants—gas stations, restaurants, clothing stores, et cetera—to refuse cash transactions. According to Reuters, a financial institution lobbyist says that "going cashless would save shops money on security and time on managing change from the cash register."

What this won't end, of course, is theft; it will simply shift to a different arena, less ski-mask-and-gun, more keyboard-and-mouse. But if Denmark's cashless society works on balance, it's not inconceivable to think other countries will follow suit. As Fusion's Kevin Roose puts it, "It's time to take a lesson from the Danes…and admit that the 5,000-year reign of physical currency has run its course."

Running  a successful Kickstarter campaign has become a nearly-necessary stop on the road to launching a hardware startup. With Berlin as a hotbed for tech startups over the last several years and the long standing mystique of German design and manufacturing—the launch of Kickstarter in Germany was a natural choice for the Brooklyn-based crowdfunding platform looking to broaden their reach in Europe. 

Leading the new batch of German creators is Eindhoven-bred, Berlin-based design duo Nils Chudy and Jasmina Grase with their long-awaited Kickstarter campaign for MIITO. The recent Design Academy Eindhoven graduates have already garnered considerable attention upon winning the James Dyson Award in the Netherlands and a nomination for Design of the Year from the Design Museum London. The project, which began as the graduation thesis of Nils Chudy, gained an international following as just a concept. The excitement surrounding the concept lead the duo to the bold decision to start a company and take development and production into their own hands. 

MIITO is a 'kettle' of sorts, using an induction hub and a steel rod to heat the exact amount of water in a particular vessel making it sleek and energy efficient. The MIITO can heat inside anything non-ferrous and be used for larger mugs or teapots as well as bowls and glasses. Due to the low energy consumption of induction heating and the fact that you never over-fill a kettle, MIITO is a small but smart step toward a more sustainable home. 

We caught up with co-founder Jasmina Grase of MIITO on the eve of their Kickstarter launch to ask few questions about their perspective on taking a product through production and why Kickstarter was the right route for them. 

Teshia Treuhaft:  Why did you decide to run a crowdfunding campaign?

Jasmina Grase: We started to do everything because of the people that approached us after the first round of press. It seemed logical that we should bring something back to them instead of asking them to wait two years until they could go to a store to buy the product when they have already talked to them personally. We had established that contact and I don't think there is any other logical way to bring the product to market except to use what was already there. It's just a continuation of our communication with the people we've been emailing and contacting but on another level where we physically give them something back. It's not only about saying "Yes were taking the feedback into account" but "look—we actually listened and it's a good idea and you can see we applied it"—I don't see another option for how to do it.

You guys generated a lot of interest after being selected for the James Dyson Award, how did you deal with the offers from larger companies looking to buy and develop the design? 

Turning down offers from big companies—it was a naïve idea. At that point we were in Copenhagen and we were talking with a lot of product designers about how to establish a studio. Figuring out what's the process you go through when you have a product to produce. It was so common to hear that everyone gives their designs away to someone else and then they complain—'oh yeah it ended up in this cheap material' and 'I didn't want it to be like that' or 'this one didn't get produced for some reason.' There are so many nice concepts that are lost on the way. It's a bit of ping ponging who has the responsibility for the product. 

In the beginning we were joking, "yeah it would be really funny—we'll start a company." But the longer we thought about it and the more people approached us offering to help, it made us more and more curious. Really, if you think about the concept phase, it can be such a small part of the entire process that the designer is involved in before it gets to the store. It's often two extra years before things ship—what happens during that time? We want to be there for that.

Jasmina Grase and Nils Chudy of MIITO. 

Why did you choose Berlin to set up shop?

It was a natural choice if we think about hardware, maybe it's a cliché —but Germany is a country that makes high quality, trusted products. Companies like Braun, I don't know who can beat that, it's beautiful, affordable—all the things we want to be. It's also that the industry is still here there is a lot of support for new companies in this sector. 

Development phases for MIITO. 

Why were you and Nils drawn to this route as designer-founders?

It's not always common for designers to be founders—at least it's not the case so far. I think it's the typical mentality of the designer, they want to be doing a bit of everything and be in a constant state of change. They don't want to sit with that one cup for a year—that's why they sell it off. 

For us, I think we are drawn to the challenge. We are still interested in other methods of getting products into the world. We've actually tried to do it all three ways—we have furniture pieces where we are organizing the manufacturing but we have a person in charge of all the selling. Also we have a product where another company will completely take over development and sell it under their name and then of course we have MIITO—which is the most consuming project. 

We are testing out all three ways of bringing a product to market because there are learning points for each method that compliment each other. By signing off all the agreements and responsibility to the company you can really see what happens when you hand over the project. Organizing the manufacturing we get to then get some control over how we ship, how we package and how do we communicate with the manufacturer. But when it comes to MIITO, we plan to keep doing everything ourselves.

Thanks to Jasmina for speaking with us. To learn more about the MIITO check out their website or Kickstarter page. 

NASA is not known for taking risks. But by partnering with smaller, pluckier transportation technology companies, they can bring their engineering might to bear on blue-sky technologies that would never have reached internal approval.

One such partner is Joby Aviation, a California-based company "founded to revolutionize how we commute." Joby's radical S2 aircraft is designed to increase commuting speed by a factor of five—while using five times less energy than an automobile traveling the same distance. They mean to achieve this via distributed electric propulsion; no less than twelve rotors, each with their own electric motor, launch the vehicle vertically, then tilt forward in concert to enable cruising. Take a look at this nuttiness:

That CG animation was created last year. In the time since, NASA has been working on a remote-controlled scale model—in essence, a drone—that uses the same technology, to see if they can actually get it to work. Two weeks ago NASA's Langley Research Center released video of the test flight:

The prototype you see in the video, dubbed "Greased Lightning," uses ten rotors rather than twelve, and tilts the entire wing assemblies rather than the individual rotors, but demonstrates that the crucial transition from hovering to flying is workable. It's true that the prototype doesn't look as sexy or feature the fancy folding propellers shown in the S2 renderings below, but it will presumably be Joby's task to realize those.

NASA, Joby Aviation and third engineering partner ESAero are calling the technology LEAPTech, for Leading Edge Asynchronous Propellers Technology. Here NASA Aerospace Engineer Mark D. Moore explains the staggering efficiencies they're able to achieve with this configuration, and points out that distributed electric propulsion will change the way that we design vehicles:

Product photography is one of the more technically challenging subsets of shooting, requiring a masterful understanding of lighting. And within product photography, automotive photography is even beastlier, because the product in question is huge and not exactly easy to reposition. Still, it's safe to say that pro shooter Scott Kelby has got automotive photography down:

In an earlier post we showed you the ginormous set-ups required to shoot cars. At a minimum it seems you need an infinity wall, huge diffusers and plenty of power, as shown below:

So we were amazed to see that Kelby, who learned automotive photography through the teachings of UK-based shooter Tim Wallace, produced some stunning shots of an Audi R8 in less-than-ideal conditions—and in just sixty minutes. First off, check out the shots:

Kelby pulled this off with no studio and almost no time, being given just one hour to shoot the car in the owner's average-looking suburban garage. See how he did it, and what equipment he used, in this behind-the-scenes video: