Here's a wicked data visualization showing America absorbing a certain something from 1820 to 2013:

Created by data analyst Max Galka at Metrocosm, each dot represents 10,000 people. To be clear, these depict documented instances of folks legally gaining permanent resident status; the results of both the slave trade and illegal immigration are not represented here.

If you watched the visualization without reading an explanation of what you were seeing, it would appear ominous—like all of the countries in the world firing multicolored missiles at Kansas City. But while it might look like other countries attacking America, in fact this represents what Dr. Michio Kaku famously referred to as "America's Secret Weapon:"

Alternatively, if you viewed the visualization after watching last night's Warriors game, it looks like a representation of Steph Curry hitting three-point shots in overtime.

Paul Allen is not pleased.

In anticipation of their exhibition opening this Friday at New York Design Week's Sight Unseen OFFSITE, all 11 design studios involved in the "Furnishing Utopia" show inspired by classic Shaker Designs shared exclusive insight into their design process and final designs. 

Here each studio tells Core77 the story behind their individual projects—the Shaker objects that inspired their designs and the production processes for some of their pieces—in their own words.

Studio Gorm

Studio Gorm's plywood baskets.

We have always admired the Shaker oval boxes and black Ash baskets—both are practical, light, and their forms are derived from the optimal use of material. Our baskets are made in a similar way to oval boxes but take advantage of modern materials, like a very thin and flexible bamboo plywood and a solid plywood base. The forms are a result of the material properties and are similar to the shape transitions found in Shaker baskets, which start as rectangles and finish as more rounded forms at the top.

Studio Gorm's dining/work table.

We were inspired by several different trestle tables, for our dining/work table, the Shakers developed many variations, a very practical table typology that they commonly used for dining. They are light and strong and the legs don't get in the way with a full table of diners. There are several that intelligently used metal hardware to assemble and disassemble them. The Shakers were regularly moving things around, so they often designed larger pieces to come apart. We wanted to create a practical table that could be easily assembled and taken apart. 

We designed a very simple table with contrasting oversized graphic hardware and a sliding dovetail connection that keeps the solid wood top flat but also allows for the top to slide apart in order to allow cords and power adapters to pass through. We were also looking at construction details from other objects, like a dovetailed connection on a shave horse, and some large hand-forged bolts on a bed. 

Norm Architects

We were primarily inspired by the molds used by the Shakers to bend veneer into shape for baskets and boxes. The molds they use have holes in them, which are used during the making process to hold the veneer in place, but they also come in handy as a storage solution—the Shakers had a tradition of hanging objects on the walls, everything from chairs to trays and tools, to organize interior spaces and make them easier to clean. That level of thought, not only about the object itself, but also about its ultimate place in the house, was very inspiring to us.

A little exotic detail of the design is that the trays are actually stained with black Sumi ink, as a salute to traditional Japanese design. We wanted to draw this parallel because in Japan they have trays and baskets made of bent wood that are very similar to the Shaker ones, and, of course, many of the general philosophies behind Shaker design and traditional Japanese design are perfectly aligned.

Norm Architects Sumi ink trays

As craftsmen and inventors, the Shakers were distilling design to its purest form. Through this process, we tried to see if we could simplify the baskets and trays even more than the Shakers had done. The simpler you make a design, the more important the quality of the details becomes—and that's always the tricky part. For example, figuring out how the veneer sides would meet the wood base was one of the more challenging parts of the process from a technical point of view.

Tom Bonamici

I loved the idea of a real chandelier, non-electrified. I made a bunch of funky little prototypes, tried them out at home and totally fell in love with having a few more options for lighting with candles.

I felt a desire to be more patient while making these objects. The Shaker artifacts I've seen are so perfectly made—that takes a vast amount of patience and willingness to slow down and do it right. I hope to keep some of that patience in my work from now on!

Tom Bonamici's Chandelier

Making the little cylindrical cleats that are used to suspend the chandelier and the sconces was pretty tricky. I ended up using a machine lathe to ensure everything was centered and copacetic. Otherwise, I used almost all hand tools for the shaping and cutting. Both the chandelier and sconces have traditional wood joints, which were used a great deal by the Shakers. And I didn't use computer programs, relying instead on hand sketching and physical prototyping.

Studio Tolvanen

The Brother Shelf was inspired by utilitarian shelving in the Brethren Workshop at Shaker Village. It uses nothing more than the essential geometry needed to stand upright, but nevertheless has a playful appearance. The array of triangular crossbars in the Brother Shelf are a simple solution that keep it from leaning to the side and also eliminate the need for messy cross brace hardware. 

Consequently, the shelf can be used either one-sided (against the wall) or two-sided (as a room divider). The Sister Table is an unassuming coffee table that takes cues from a stone sink in the Sister's Dairy at the Shaker Village. The table has friendly rounded corners, a handy carrying handle and a lip around the edge that holds everything neatly in place. 

Studio Tolvanen's "Brother Shelf"

Being Finnish, we were drawn to the traditional Shaker objects because they share a common desire for purpose. Perhaps it's not specific objects that inspired us but more so the details, the use of material and purposefulness thoughtfully crafted into every item they created. Even though there is a lack of ornamentation in the objects, a sense of beauty comes through in their intentionality.

Hallgeir Homstvedt

I approached the design process with our modern society in mind and looked for new situations and construction details for inspiration. The chest of drawers and, more specifically, the oversized knobs on many of these pieces, were the inspirations behind my toolbox. The idea of the toolbox itself came from the many types of containers and storage solutions that can be found in the Shaker archives.

Hallgeir Homstvedt Doverail (left) and Toolbox (right)

I decided to make the Doverail out of wood to stay closer to the aesthetics and production processes used by the Shakers. Wood is a living material that changes with humidity and temperature, so it was difficult to achieve a smooth and constant operation for the rail. I experimented with many types of locking mechanisms and ended up using a tension screw; similar to those you can see on adjustable easels. This allowed for looser tolerances and a more consistent product.

Gabriel Tan

Gabriel Tan's three-legged chairs

The Shakers designed chairs in a way that was relevant to their way of life. Not only are our homes getting smaller today, restaurants, bars and cafes are too. "What is the smallest functional chair, that could still be comfortable to sit on?" was my question. I designed a three-legged chair with a short backrest and a seat shape inspired by the shaker stove, that can be hung on a wall mounted peg rail.

Darin Montgomery

My daybed was inspired by three objects: a bed, a wood burning stove and a dustpan. We mounted wheels to the back legs so the daybed can be pulled away from the wall for cleaning. The straps holding the cushion down reference the rope support for their mattresses. The ropes were threaded through the bed frame and tightened—that's where the term "sleep tight" comes from. The cantilevered side table was inspired by the ashtray on the Shakers' wood burning stoves. It has an almost cartoonish quality about it. Lastly, the leg support detail was taken from the metal dustpans they made.

Darin Montgomery's daybed

Simplifying construction was the greatest challenge. The first iterations of the daybed in particular seem ridiculous in hindsight. We're working on the next tweak that will simplify it even more. I get hung up on the idea that a simple object actually has to be complicated to make. The Shakers took the opposite approach. Their pieces clearly required a high level of skill, but the solutions they arrived at were sincere and absent of arrogance. I kept reminding myself of this throughout the design process.

Chris Specce

For me, the way the Shakers had fully integrated their spiritual life with their physical culture was most inspiring. The Shakers were concerned with form as an expression of their beliefs—in the design of the objects they used and in the way they organized their spaces, but also in the way they ritualized the activities of daily life. I've tried to imagine how a similar type of elevation of the mundane could be possible now, even though life is so different.

Chris Specce's rake

Because the Shakers had such a spiritual investment in their work, it was intimidating to try to make something that had a meaningful engagement with their culture. From there, the big technical challenges were primarily about shaping wood. All of my work was produced with CNC machinery—I was really invested in figuring out the best machining strategies. The rake was particularly challenging in this respect, especially in the tines. At first I was attempting to do all of the forming prior to bending them into their curved shape by steam bending. The logic here was that they would be much easier to form with a 3-axis CNC machine if they were flat. But steam bending proved to be too inconsistent and the failure rate of parts was too high for how much effort went into getting them shaped as flat parts. In the end, they are first molded as a lamination and then cut on a CNC router with a special fixture to hold them. This requires quite a bit of post-processing: some rough shaping and a lot of sanding.

Chris Specce's ice scraper

The Shakers were a progressive society and they were often early adopters of technology, so I didn't want my projects to be anachronistic or reject technology. The projects have a similar approach because they are all modeled on something mundane and "low," but nonetheless useful and convenient: plastic garden rakes, windshield ice scrapers, folding step ladders. My goal is for the things I've designed to conjure these familiar things but present a more graceful form and elevated materiality and production standard to yield something that is (maybe) somewhat ridiculous but also an interesting and compelling object.

Zoë Mowat

I was drawn to the large collection of brushes and brooms found in the Shaker archives. The Shakers invented the flat broom as it's known today and they made and sold brushes in a variety of forms for many different uses—for cleaning hats and work benches, or for shaving or dusting the fireplace. Consistent with all their objects, their brushes are all handmade, beautiful and completely functional.

Zoe Mowat's cleaning brushes

My aim was to explore the Shaker focus on utility, organization, and cleanliness. The designs were directly inspired by brushes from the archives: a hat brush, a smaller curved bench brush, and traditional dusting brushes. The simple forms came out of the desire to unify the series and emphasize the handles, which are all painted with colors from the traditional Shaker palette. I was surprised—as I think many people are—when I saw their use of color. The Shakers painted their furniture, objects, and buildings in a variety of vibrant colors, and certain colors were often chosen for specific objects or spaces—ochre in the bedrooms and dark blue for religious or meeting spaces, for example.

Ladies & Gentleman Studio

The Shakers' believed strongly that work is a form of worship, so when asked to reinterpret their values in the modern context we took a closer look at how we work today. The desk was the logical place to start and we took inspiration by the variety of desks and worktables at the shaker village. Many of these were highly specialized stations for tasks like sewing, writing, woodworking, etc. They were designed to take up no more room than necessary and in many cases closed or compacted when not in use. Our favorite such piece was a tall chest of drawer whose middle drawer pulled out and unexpectedly folded downward revealing a complete desk with a writing surface and storage compartments.

Ladies & Gentlemen's work desk

We wanted our work station to be similarly unassuming, compact, and useful so we created a movable secretary desk whose lid can be folded down to reveal a seated work area complete with cable management and storage for supplies. Additionally, the desk's top surface can be used as a standing height work surface furthering the functionality and versatility of the piece.

We were also fascinated by the materiality and graphic presence of woven Shaker chair seats. Our stools isolated the woven seat as the main element to create a simple, colorful pair of stools that celebrated the pattern and colors of the technique in a new way. The stool's solid wood structure functions like a canvas frame that highlights the basic beauty of the weaving technique.

Ladies & Gentlemen's woven stool

Jonah Takagi

My designs for Furnishing Utopia were inspired by thrift, honesty and the formal language of circles intersecting squares. The visual lightness as well as the economy of material and structure within Shaker objects will continue to inform my work.

Jonah Takagi's desktop objects.

It's hard to imagine improving Shaker objects, besides tailoring them to life in 2016. For me, it was about looking for small, inconsequential moments that could be amplified. A table leg transitioning from a square profile to a circle or an elegant way to make use of the odd candles in the bottom of a drawer.

You can view all of these pieces in person beginning Friday, May 13th-Monday, May 16th at Sight Unseen OFFSITE as part of New York Design Week. 

The energy-design thinkers at BioLight are aiming in a bright new direction: lighting! The company first crossed our radar with their innovative biofuel stove designed to reduce harmful emissions and produce electricity at the same time. Since then they've continued to refine their multi-purpose products for use indoors and out. The BaseLantern is the newest, launching on Kickstarter yesterday, and it's already fully funded. This slim rechargeable lantern is intended for brightening up camping, festivals, backyard get togethers, or nightlight-like home use, and it does a good bit more.

As we first saw back in February, BioLite is interested in making our lighting options more multi-functional. Now they're kicking the light-plus-power idea into high gear, with a bigger light source, serious battery life, the ability to connect with other lights, and a couple charging ports. But the biggest move forward is its Bluetooth LE connected app that gives options for customized control, remote activation, programed activation, and even different colors to suit the mood or for better night vision.

The size is much smaller and flatter than traditional lanterns, coming in around the size of a hearty sandwich (sliced bread, not sub). This is much more packable, particularly when you factor the lack of fuel. The small form is the product of using a narrow rechargeable battery sandwiched by refractory molding on the inside of each lens, which amplifies the LEDs used to a solid 500 lm output. This is a lighter duty output than many, but I'd argue that its strength is in ease of use and versatility, not the ability to flood a whole campsite.

The snug-fitting aluminum legs fold out as a stable base for ambient lighting, an angled base for reading or focused tasks, or as a hanging point from a branch or tent hook. Used with the neatly nesting SiteLight string lights, the BaseLantern can extend for a cheerful festive atmosphere. And when used with the app, the BaseLight will have adjustable color settings as well. Who hasn't wanted custom mood lighting while tripping balls in the woods? And it's way easier to clean up than a tipped lava lamp.

The BaseLantern charges with a micro-USB input, and doles out power via a couple USB outputs, so you can juice more than one device at a time. The standard model has an estimated battery life of 54 hours on low, 5 hours on high, and between 8 and 9 on medium while using the additional lights, and can fit up to 4x iPhone charges, 6 charges of a GoPro Hero, or 200+ charges of a FitBit Flex. The BaseLantern XL model boasts a battery life of 114, 7, and 13.5 hours respectively, over 6 phone charges, 9+ GoPro charges, and over 300 FitBit refuels. That's a pretty great power bank, even without the illumination options.

At around 1.3 pounds for the standard size this isn't an ultralight tool, but combined with its extensive battery bank abilities it could make casual camping a lot more comfortable... and, if we're being honest, more genuinely contemporary. Our digital lives rarely stop at the trailhead, and mixed-use power products like this could go far to getting people farther down the trail. 

All in all the BaseLantern seems like a cool example of "multi-tool" lighting, nicely in line with BioLite's goal to bring power and light to new places. 

Hull-Oakes Lumber is one of the last steam-powered sawmills in America. The Oregon-based company are the go-to guys if you need, say, an 85-foot-long timber.

Image by Gary Katz / This is Carpentry

Gary Katz visited their facility and took some awesome photos. One of the things he captured is their massive headrig, which dwarfs any bandsaw you've ever seen in your life.

Image by Gary Katz / This is Carpentry

Image by Gary Katz / This is Carpentry

Incredibly, Katz reports, the blade needs to be removed and sharpened after every two hours of use!

Image by Gary Katz / This is Carpentry

That being the case, the saw techs have got the procedure down to a science. 

Image by Gary Katz / This is Carpentry

Image by Gary Katz / This is Carpentry

Image by Gary Katz / This is Carpentry

Once they've loaded it onto the sharpening rig, the actual grinding is automated. Here's video of the process in action, shot by YouTuber StoneCabinPhotos:

You can see where the teeth have been worn down on the other side of the blade. With something this big, it makes sense that after one side wears down, they'd flip it and use the other.

Image by Gary Katz / This is Carpentry

I wonder how many times they can resharpen before the teeth are all gone. Judging by the wear marks in the photo above, I'm guessing they can't regrind a new set because the blade wouldn't have enough meat to track on the tires properly. Lastly, I'm estimating the overall length/circumference of the blade by looking at the images and assuming the dudes in them are six-foot; does 50 feet look about right to you?

Please do check out Katz's full article on Hull-Oakes, their processes are pretty fascinating.

The Ultra Electric Bus concept showcases TATA MOTORS' design vision of a fully electric bus that is the symbol of a modern, resurgent India. Tata sees the Ultra Electric as a fundamental part of India's future SMART city initiative. Below, we interview Tata's global Head of Design Pratap Bose to learn more about the Ultra Electric and the way that design of public transport can really shape the future of our cities.

"We felt that the SMART city needed equally smart transport. So we conceived the bus to be a symbol of the ideal smart city," says Bose, Head of Design at Tata Global.

"Public transport can be iconic; think of the New York cab or Routemaster bus, even Bombay's yellow and back cabs. These designs come to symbolize the identity of their city, so the bus was designed to reflect this new idea of a connected city. Everything you see in a smart-city will reflect what the city is becoming; a powerful statement of intent in terms of design."

Design themes

Two key themes emerged: first—the design had to reflect what the powertrain was, in this case fully electric. "We've done that by creating a striking graphic identity with high-impact highlights." Second: it had to reflect an intelligent mode of transport." So the team drew from iconography of mobile phones, laptops, PCs by using very bold graphics and colors to make it instantly recognizable."

Impact design

"The form of a bus is fairly limiting from a design perspective, it's a cuboid and the packaging is the priority, and far more constrained than a car, so we felt that the face could be very strong, and the interior and the graphic identity would reinforce that boldness."

"The big difference with a commercial vehicle is the customer—bus customers are local governments, service providers etc. so you have to take a different approach. One thing is common—the aesthetic impact; an immediate visual impact, and a lasting impact over time..that only comes when people fall in love with a product.

The Routemaster, or London cab for example, support the life of citizens in a very convincing way—they become part of the 'urban furniture'.

We put a lot of user-centric features in this bus; the drivers cockpit has a very considered layout, far more progressive than typical Indian buses."

"It's wi-fi enabled, with charging points at every seat…a small but important feature; you're waiting at the bus stop for work with a low mobile battery, you can come to rely on the bus—just small details that make the experience a more memorable one, little touches. That way it becomes part of the commuter's life."

Design Scale

"So the main difference from automotive design to this vehicle is scale. You obviously see it from a different perspective, your visual perception is completely different in terms of how you relate to that scale of vehicle.

Because, unlike with a car, you don't often see the entire vehicle, we wanted to make it immediately recognizable. So the graphics and front face are key. There's a lot of aggressive design on the streets today, and we don't want to add to that. It can't look too aggressive, and it obviously shouldn't look as if it would want to run you down! Everything's quite flush, there are no protrusions and there's the "Trust-bar" (Tata's brand identity feature) on the front; very simple, but a recognizable backlit symbol of the brand."

Colour scheme

We developed a protective technical exoskeleton around the darker passenger compartment. It's a visual sense of protection that's reassuring.

Design detail

3D printed elements were key for exterior and interior—we have a pattern, symbolic of Indian architecture, where traditionally people employ screens to break up the light. We developed this graphic and it's just a hint of our identity in the details. It may remind someone of a stay in a palace hotel, a trip to Rajasthan, a nod and a subtle reference of a memory. In this race to connectivity it's very easy to lose your identity, forget where the company came from.

While the Ultra Electric remains a concept, Pratap is confident we'll see a production version of the Ultra in the first Smart cities. "We designed the Ultra Electric as a friendly yet purposeful symbol for India's vibrant and dynamic cities, and with this in mind the concept is key to establishing a meaningful relationship with commuters."

2015 IDSA International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) Finalist. Recycle A Cup cuts and separates used Keurig K-Cups so they may be recycled. This innovative product provides a solution to a global problem as 9.6 billion single coffee cups are generated annually. That's 2.6 billion cubic feet of space from K-cups.

As the Core77-Discussion-Boards-savvy among you know, Michael DiTullo isn't just a moderator, but has one of the sweetest industrial design jobs around. As Chief Design Officer for Sound United, DiTullo heads up design projects for S.U. brands Polk Audio, Boom and Definitive Technology.

For the latter, DiTullo and team have recently completed the BP9000 line, the fourth generation of DT's Bipolar speaker series and a ground-up redesign. In the following video DiTullo, the design team and the engineering team talk about what went into this massive undertaking:

We're digging this quote: "I wanted to draw stuff from the future. I just figured that had to be somebody's job."

This week we bring you our pressing topic of the moment straight from our reader-driven discussion boards! Core77 discussion board member Jacob Fleisher recently shared his own approach for evaluative design research. Jacob writes: 

Getting research participants to articulate the "why" can be challenging in an evaluative session. And getting them to articulate what something "should be" is even tougher. I created a bunch of (50 or so) visual cards to help them evaluate existing products, services and messages, and to help them create new ones.

Here's a couple of pics of a few of 'em. I've found they help a lot.

This card strategy is a great jump-off for a discussion regarding how designers get the answers they really need during design research for product development, as well as what they would even want to hear from these participants. After being asked why he would even bother trying to hear what consumers think a product "should be" like, Jacob said: 

The "should be" question is always about something that is there, tangible, in front of them. I agree with your point - getting people to invent things and see the future is a poor path to developing something new. For making new things, I would begin with observational/ethnographic/contextual research (though that's not exclusive of course: new things can be made with no research as well).

Some designers prefer asking questions while others find it more helpful to simply observe behaviors instead of getting direct input. Core77-er iab writes,

Honestly, I gave up on "should be" years ago. I find it much easier to pose the question as "what's the problem?". Which then can easily be articulated by the design team to "what it should be".

And I would even go as far as saying you should ignore any respondent's "should be" answer. It is human nature to want to provide an answer instead of articulating the problem. The problem is I need to get from A to B quicker. I need to get from A to B without taking a break. I need to get from A to C without stopping at B. You need to draw that out of your respondents. Given a choice, they will give you the answer, "I need a faster horse" instead of giving you the problem.

What strategies do you implement to get the answers you're looking for in an evaluative research study? When is it best to employ observational methods and in what circumstances are inquiry-based methods of research more appropriate?

Share your thoughts and design insights in the comment feed below! 

(Also feel free to check out the original post and contribute on our discussion board!)

We've seen drones blasted out of the sky with a shotgun, attacked by raptors and brought down by a drone-hunting drone carrying a net. But this is the first time we've seen someone dressed like an extra on Game of Thrones taking a drone down with a freaking spear.

The scene was a medieval reenactment in Lipetsk, Russia, where one of the participants apparently got sick of the anachronistic effect the drone was having:

The best part is how pleased they all look right before the point of impact:

I'm moderately impressed with his aim, but I'd be more impressed if he took down the chainsaw-carrying drone.

Have you ever looked at an object and found it so uncomfortable that you wanted to touch it? This might be most familiar in high fashion, but in many areas of design that feeling of surprise-revulsion can be a source of inspiration. Today's example: Rock Set by Arkadiusz Szwed, a Polish ceramicist and designer whose simple porcelain drinkware makes me feel both anxious and intrigued. 

Using both hand-building techniques and casting gives the Rock Set an organic form with a prim and glossy finish. The glasses look like barnacles, the jug looks slippery and difficult to hold, and I have skeptical feelings about how you'd clean it. But between the odd angles, uncertainty about the heft, and thoughts about how it would feel in other materials... I'd love to get my hands on it anyway.

Some features of good haptics can be streamlined on a meta level (it helps if you have the budget and scientific wherewithal of an Apple team or the corporation formerly known as Google X), but some things can't. 

That it factor that makes your hand "want" to touch something is pretty subjective, and has a lot to do with a lot of small personal associations we bank up over years. And our assumptions about a feature's latent value can creep in alongside, even when user feedback is mixed or production options aren't heavily constrained. (Does a lightweight spoon feel cheap? How many fingers should a mug handle fit?) 

Ceramics, as a material and a field, can be an excellent source of tactile and haptic inspiration, particularly given its incredibly long history of use, and its mind-blowingly versatile range of applications. Its basis in chemistry along with its susceptibility to natural variation make it a regular host for surprising texture and detail, whether you're looking at royal tea sets, outsider art, or precision aerospace components. 

Working with design thinking can often leave a thinker more practiced in problem-solving critique than critical creativity. But a quick dip in the light discomforts of DIY, fine art, and wabi sabi design can sometimes refresh your fun sensors. 

Szwed's ungainly yet elegant jugs and lumpy yet well-matched glasses were a nice reminder that satisfying product design isn't all pragmatism and minimal lines. When I find myself grumbling Why on earth is it like that? it's often just as interesting to follow with Why should it be? 

Candidates must demonstrate abilities in concept visualization and a strong understanding of design and scale within the built environment; possess strong organizational, leadership, project management, team-building, and communication skills. Must have 6-8 years related work experience in retail store design and a proficiency in 3D StudioMax, Photoshop, & Adobe Illustrator.

While people say print is dead, the New Yorker has released a seriously awesome 21st-Century magazine cover this week. Illustrator Christoph Niemann's two-tone drawings adorn the front and back of the magazine, and when you look at them through the augmented reality app Uncovr, you are treated to these wonderful animations:

I love that rotating the physical magazine corresponds with the on-screen rotation, allowing you to explore new angles within the cityscape. The clever imagery was created in collaboration between Niemann and New Yorker Art Director Françoise Mouly, and the free Uncovr app was created specifically for the magazine by Nexus Interactive Arts. As for why they did it: Within the magazine are full-page ads from Qualcomm that the app renders interactive, and they're hoping you'll be curious enough to take a look.

By the bye, we previously looked at Niemann's excellent work here:

Christoph Niemann's Clever Prop-Featuring Illustrations

Those who live in an urban/suburban bubble might see drone delivery as a nifty way to receive pizzas. But for those in rural, geographically-remote areas, a successful drone delivery system could literally save lives. Consider someone who immediately needs medication, but lives in a mountainous region where the pass is snowed over. A drone can make a beeline for the destination without needing to wait for a snowplow, and altitude is no problem.

To make that solution a reality, not only the drone but the entire delivery system has to be designed. This week DHL announced they've done just that, and have completed three months of successful trials in the mountainous, snowy Reit im Winkl area in Bavaria, Germany.

The DHL Parcelcopter is intended primarily for situations that mesh poorly with established infrastructures or where standard delivery methods are overly lengthy. Locations not linked to the standard road network are one example. "Natural barriers" such as water or mountains are not an issue for the drone. The DHL Parcelcopter is thus seen as a tool for improving infrastructure in hard-to-reach areas, improving the lives of the inhabitants there.

DHL's drone delivery system consists of the aforementioned Parcelcopter, which isn't the tiny quadrotor most hobbyists are messing about with, but a tiltwing aircraft—think of the U.S. military's V-22 Osprey—that's 2.2 meters (over seven feet) long. 

The Parcelcopter can carry 2kg (about 4.4 pounds) and can do 70 k.p.h. (about 43 m.p.h.). 

The packages are not left exposed and hanging from the bottom of the craft, but are instead stored within its belly, protected from the elements.

The Parcelcopter doesn't exist in a vacuum, but docks within and travels back and forth between two Packstation/Skyports, trailer-sized structures that both house the vehicle and serve as customer drop-off/pick-up points for packages. It's something like Amazon Locker but the roof opens up and the drone flies in and out of it.

The packages are placed within a standardized container that the Parcelcopter can accept, and the process is largely automated. Here's what it looks like in action:

To give you an idea of what this means in practical terms:

[We focused on] delivery to an alpine region notable for its geographical and meteorological challenges. The first task was to master the rapidly changing weather conditions and severe temperature fluctuation in the test area. With that achieved, the DHL Parcelcopter then performed a series of flawless flights.

Each round trip from valley to plateau at roughly 1,200 meters above sea level covered eight kilometers of flight. The drone's cargo was typically either sporting goods or urgently needed medicines and it arrived at the Alm station within just eight minutes of take-off. The same trip by car takes more than 30 minutes during winter.

The Parcelcopter made 130 trips in total and the trial has been deemed a success. Next DHL will be analyzing the data gleaned and selecting another trial location.

Given that the previous trial location was oceanic—they successfully delivered packages and medicine to an island in the North Sea—we imagined the next location would be a desert environment. But a hint from a DHL executive suggests otherwise: "We have achieved a level of technical and procedural maturity," said Management Board Member Jürgen Gerdes, "to eventually allow for field trials in urban areas as well." You reckon they'll stoop to pizzas?

Student work is always something we look forward to during New York Design Week for its unapologetic willingness to explore the depths of material and conceptual possibility in design. One great example of the engaging investigations coming out of academic programs will soon be on display at ICFF, Rhode Island School of Design's exhibit of student work created for their Narrative of Making furniture course. 

Sinuous Chair by Noelle Antignano

Run by RISD furniture design professor Lothar Windels, this course was a guinea pig of sorts to test the opportunities for cross-disciplinary work in an academic setting. Putting together students from the furniture design and textile programs, the course aimed to see how ideas could be pushed further when students with different expertise worked together to create something. Students were partnered and asked to reevaluate how soft materials are used in furniture design—rather than conventionally upholstering hard structures with textiles, the course challenged students to instead investigate and utilize inherent qualities of these soft materials through the use of weaving, knitting, knotting or crocheting.  

Stretch Lounge by Michelle Dunbar and Mayela Mujica

The class, consisting roughly of six furniture design students and six textile students, allowed participants from different disciplines to learn from one another on an intimate level. Participating Furniture Design MFA student Mayela Mujica noted when working with her textile partner Michelle Dunbar that "being a bit naive of the other's respective field really stretched the limits of what we each thought was possible."

When it came to producing their furniture pieces, students were encouraged to study the diverse possibilities of different materials, which would often lead to interesting discoveries within each group. Furniture Design MFA Maria Camarena Bernard said when creating her crocheted yarn chair that she came across several unexpected material discoveries: 

Wall-To-Wall by Emre Bagdatolu

"We started crocheting rope and thick materials thinking that this would help to give some structure to the bodies we were creating. Instead we found that this kind of material became very heavy. Rather than forming a structure, we ended up with a heavy mass of knotted rope wanting to spread on the ground. So we tried again, using soft yarn that would allow us to play more with the forms we wanted to create. Using acrylic and wool yarn, we were able to play with a larger variety of colors."

Camarena also states that the collaborative nature of the project caused her to step outside of her normal patterns of thinking, saying that "as a furniture designer my first instinct was to create a frame or structure to be covered with the textile we would produce. But my collaborator, Aakanksha from the textiles department, was interested in solely using textile as structure and body. I loved the challenge."

Million Loops Chair by Maria Camarena Bernard & Aakanksha Sirothia

Professor Windels feels that the ultimate takeaways from a course like this is in one part about the technical knowledge students gain when tackling their individual project challenges, but it is perhaps more importantly about what each student gains from working with someone possessing a different skillset. "It's almost like working in the real world that you have to work with an engineer, you work with a marketing person," says Windels, "so it just forced them to also see a different perspective and it really worked out well."

Caterpillar Lounge by Griffin Boswell and Ruth Henry

The Big Empty by Reid Hoyt

"The Narrative of Making" opens this Saturday May 14 during ICFF at Booth #3673

Each day our editors will roundup our favorite sights and projects from New York Design Week. Today we look at some of the early openers before the major exhibitions open their doors on Friday.

The Theater of Hermès Home

Robert Wilson is having a great affair with the design world this year. In Milan, the renowned American theater director debuted an asymmetrical LED chandelier with the Italian lighting company Slamp at the Wallpaper* arcade and for New York Design Week he designed and directed Hermès Home's theatrical presentation. Like much of Wilson's work, actors executed a slow and precise choreography of repeating movements in a dream-like world of domestic objects suspended precariously, floating in mid-air, and staged in unexpected angles. The installation, "Here, Elsewhere" created a context for visitors to experience the imagery—cheetahs, tropical birds, pattern play—that was the source of inspiration for the collection.

Robert Wilson for Hermès Home, Cedar Lake, Through May 12.

Broom off Broome

British designer Lee Broom is storming New York City's Broome Street with a one-month pop-up store showcasing over 50 products from his range of lighting, tabletop and interior furniture designs. For the occasion, Broom is debuting the Mini Crescent light, a smaller version of his popular Crescent Light globe sliced in half by a brushed brass fascia, as a pendant and desk lamp. The product is currently exclusive to the US market and it celebrates Broom's first store in the United States. 

Broom Off Broome, 63 Greene Street. Through June 10.

3D Printed for the OTHRs

Juicer by Everything Elevated and Metal Box from Todd Bracher.

Last night the New Museum hosted the launch of OTHR, a new brand of homewares manufactured with 3D printed ceramics and metals. Creative director Joe Doucet enlisted a who's who of design talent to create products for the debut collection including a modular desk organizer by Brad Ascalon, drinking vessels from Jonah Takagi, catchall trays from Paul Loebach, a bottle opener from Fort Standard and this beautiful metal keepsake box from Todd Bracher (above). 

OTHR launches online today at othr.com

Growth Opportunity

Within the newly launched outdoor Design Pavilion at Astor Place Plaza, American Design Club featured their latest curated exhibition, Growth. Housed in a tent with greenhouse vibes, AmDC showcased over 50 designs and prototypes submitted to their open call for functional objects that promote and sustain growth. The resulting show brought together a lot of young, up-and-coming designers with very different takes on the typical planter. Between sculptural air plant holders, zen garden arrangements and modular wall-hanging pieces, we noticed a definite trend toward organic shaped vessels—which played nicely with the concept of natural versus man-made. 

Growth was on view at the Design Pavilion, Astor Place Plaza through May 11.

Glitches & Equalizers

During Design Week, The Future Perfect showroom offers two great collections. The front half features collaborative lighting pieces from Ladies & Gentleman Studio and glass artist John Hogan. The two studios worked together to create the "Equalizer" series—a metal lighting framework that can be customized with different glassworks, embracing the idea that lighting can be elevated more to the level of "illuminated sculpture" rather than simply being hyper-functional. The back room houses designer Christopher Stuart's new "Constructs & Glitches" collection, a series of objects inspired by glitches Stuart encountered when designing furniture pieces in CAD, all elegantly translated into physical form.

Future Perfect, 55 Great Jones Street. Through July 2016.

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) reopens this week after a massive three-year renovation that sees the museum increase in size from 70,000 square feet to 170,000 square feet. Norwegian firm Snøhetta have added a ten story iceberg-like building to the existing the museum (designed by Mario Botta in 1995) which is hard to say whether it dominates or honors the original site, but inside the two buildings are seamlessly joined with linking corridors that give the illusion of one giant gallery. 

In an effort to make the museum more accessible and reach a broader audience the museum will be open 7 days a week and free to anyone under the age of 18. Visitors can navigate the exhibitions with a location aware app developed by Detour that adjusts the audio tour in real-time so you don't have to interact with the screen and can focus on the art. 

Snøhetta didn't want to create another 'spectacle' building for the cultural institution—and they didn't—they've given a lot of consideration to the physical scale of the galleries, the use of natural light, created multiple outdoor spaces and a living wall garden that brings some much needed greenery to the site. The sculptured exterior is made from over 700 panels of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) inspired the rippling waters of the San Francisco Bay and the cities fog. The panels are cheaper to produce than concrete and extremely lightweight which contributed to further structural cost savings.

One of the nicest details is an art conservation room featuring floor to ceiling windows that allow visitors to get a peek at the inner workings of the museum. The studio will also function as a place for invited artists to train staff in their techniques and host small workshops.

The museum opens May 14th, 2016 and for the designer's reading, don't miss the Typeface to Interface exhibition documenting the rapid transformation of digital typography and it's impact on graphic design.

SFMOMA
151 Third Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

Open daily: 10am – 5pm
(Thursdays until 9pm)

New entrance

The glass-enclosed ground floor gallery offers maximum natural light for Richard Serra's 213 ton sculpture 'Sequence'

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Richard Serra's Sculpture 'Sequence' (2006)

12 curved steel sections, nearly 13 feet high fill the ground floor of the museum's admission-free zone.

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Stadium seating

A place to rest and meet overlooking the Serra sculpture

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Elevator door wayfinding typography

There are two elevator banks in the museum color coded in red and silver to help visitors navigate between the buildings.

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Sculpture terrace

Visitors can step outside on the 7th floor and take in a view of the city.

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Composite panel exterior

The 10-story facade is covered in more than 700 panels of fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) inspired the rippling waters of the San Francisco Bay. Not only are they lightweight, the panels are cheaper than concrete to produce and this is the first time a composite system has passed the rigorous fire-regulation.

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Art conservation room

In an effort to share the Museum's inner workings with the general public, visitors can view artwork as it's restored from the balcony on the 7th floor. The multi-purpose studio will also serve as a place to host workshops and training sessions from invited artists.

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Art conservation room

Extreme effort is taken to purchase the exact art materials needed to restore a piece -- typically in consultation with the artist if possible.

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Wall drawing 895 / Loopy Doopy

Plans for the Sol Lewitt drawing featured in the Museum's ground floor atrium. The composition of 'Loopy Doopy' was modified to accommodate the layout and scale of the Schwab Hall architecture.

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Video installation

There are two rooms dedicated to showcasing film and video installations.

Photo credit: Glen Jackson Taylor

Designer Roderick Pieters has teamed up with Japan's Proef to launch Loper, a shoe line that responds to workers' health issues and reduces waste. After studying shoe design and manufacture, Pieters began thinking about the harmful working conditions and wasteful use cycle associated with keeping our feet neat. 

Glued-sole shoe manufacturing often exposes workers to harmful fumes and chemicals in dangerous amounts. The resulting glue poisoning is a known cause of injury, long-term illness and death among workers. Additionally, glued shoes are difficult to recycle or repair, leading to a higher likelihood of winding up as landfill filling. 

Loper aims to combine the traditional practice of resoling shoes with the casual comfort of modern sneakers or daily kicks. While resoling is an option for a wide range of nicer or more traditional shoe types, it is less common among younger shoe-users and less viable with glued-sole shoes. 

Loper's glue-free design uses a simply constructed upper and insole, stitched to the sole with thin nylon rope. The assembly requires no glue or exposure to toxics, and can be completed by a small team with limited mechanical or staffing overhead. 

There are two styles of unisex upper, in sizes ranging from EU 36-45. The leather upper is intended to be removed from the base after sufficient wear, and laced to a new one when the time comes. The soles come in a range of colors and will be replaceable by the same small manufacturer where they're made to order, or even by the customer. Since they hope to make the shoes to order and reduce overhead and waste, the joint design is currently on Kickstarter to gauge interest.

Traditional shoemaking is a complicated balancing act of material choice, ergonomics, style, and engineering. Because shoes have so much to handle, it's pretty difficult to make simple designs that are both comfortable and sturdy, whether we're talking fresh Nikes or well-heeled brogues. This design is very very simple, and its sandlesque minimalism will certainly turn some foot-havers off. More involved construction methods like welting and gluing are still used because they're effective. On the other hand, Loper appeals to existing trends in both minimal/unisex footwear, simple materials, and conscientious design.

Turning suggested reuse into a feature of the product can help consumers consider net impact, and incorporating intended function into visible design elements can advance the conversation too. 

The idea of a simple DIY sole replacement is certainly an interesting step, do you think this version has legs?

This candidate will create and develop innovative, thoughtful and culturally sensitive design solutions on both roadmap and advanced concept projects and will be responsible for the creation of innovative bathroom concepts, products, experiences, services and human interfaces. Must have 10+ years experience living and working in Asia designing consumer products.

When the mail-order catalog SkyMall filed for bankruptcy in 2015, designers and frequent flyers mourned the end of one of our favorite in-flight pasttimes. For New York Design Week, the Wintercheck Factory (WCF) is paying homage to the spirit of the beloved catalog with the NYCxSKYMALL exhibition, showcasing "design solutions for problems that don't exist." 

The design/build duo behind WCF, Kristen Wentrecek and Andrew Zebulon Williams, invited 20 of their favorite design studios to participate in the pop-up exhibition hosted in their studio space, a 3,000 square foot industrial loft in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn. In anticipation of tomorrow's opening party we spoke to Wentrecek about the concept for the show, making products in Bed-Stuy and what it takes to produce a group show for the very first time.

Wylie Conlon Fanny Pack For Your Hands

Core77: What was the prompt you gave to the designers?

Kristen Wentrecek: We tried to leave the concept fairly open so that our exhibitors could really cut loose and do something weird that wouldn't fit anywhere else. We started just by asking everyone to "make something useless," but eventually we refined the prompt into a soundbite: "Design solutions for problems that don't exist." That phrase seemed to sum up pretty much everything that ever appeared in SkyMall.

YIELD "Leather Umbrella Hat"

Doug Johnston "Slippers"

Where did the prompt/concept behind the show come from?

[WCF partner] Andrew and I were drinking beers one night with Emily Fischer from Haptic Lab, laughing about these companies like Free People that sell bundles of sticks for $28. We started talking about organizing a show satirizing that kind of thing and calling it "Brooklyn SkyMall." Eventually, we decided that we should actually use the idea as a prompt for a show during NYCxDESIGN, so we rechristened it NYCxSKYMALL and invited a short list of people to exhibit. (Emily is pregnant and due this month so she couldn't really participate this time around—but we're hoping she'll surprise us by giving birth live at the show.)

Craighton Berman's "Over-Thinking & Under-Planning" Zine

What was the planning process like?

We started out by just inviting designers who's work we know and like—we wanted to give those people free reign to just do something fun in the midst of design week, which can be super stressful and tightly curated. We've never put on a show/exhibition before, so it took us a while to figure that it helps to provide things like 'deadlines.' Plus, we were simultaneously building a new collection to present at Sight Unseen OFFSITE, which conveniently opens the same day we decided to have NYCxSKYMALL.

Your studio is located in Bed Stuy, what is the design community like there?

Since our studio space is really too big for us at the moment, we occasionally rent out the space for one time events. Through that process, we've naturally started to meet a lot of people in the neighborhood who are doing interesting things like performance art and dance battles.

Asa Pingree's "Tidewalker Bench"

What are some of your favorite pieces from the show and why?

All of the pieces turned out really well. We're especially amped about Asa Pingree's "Tidewalker Bench" with matching dumbells (catch him at ICFF this weekend, booth #5216) and the posters we have from Atlanta's BROTHERS (they also designed our flier). We're also excited to see Lukas WinklerPrins' performance piece, "Fifty-four Dollars," which he'll be doing for the very first time the night of the show.

NYCxSKYMALL, Wintercheck Factory, 1241 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn. Opening Friday, May 13th from 7PM-on and by appointment through May 17.

Portlanders like us cherish the fleeting bright moments to plow the earth and play in the sun. Like all others in the country and throughout the world, we're starting to enjoy longer days, warmer winds, and a long list of to-do's and to-see's, and we're acting on all our sun-inspired whimsies and wishes.

A long list of gear helps us make it happen, and some classic favorites and a few new hand-forged, Oregon-made garden tools are in the lineup.

We took out the new Oregon-made garden tools last week for some digging and dirt disturbing, and we're impressed by the weight and feel in hand, the strength of the steel, and, of course, the simple, hand-made, classic style.

These new tools come from the fires of Western Oregon, hand-forged in old school fashion over an anvil. A trowel, a 3-tine cultivator, and a hand hoe make up our series of essential tools. All of them are built from high quality steel and hickory. As they're made the old fashioned way, these ones are yours and your loved ones for many lifetimes, and the handles will smooth beautifully with continued use.

Now go answer the fine weather's call and get to work (and play). Dig into the entire garden collection here.

Shop Hand-Eye Supply.