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Design Job: Find Your Place as a Sr. Industrial Designer at Garmin in Olathe, KS 

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Garmin, the world leader in GPS technology, is looking for an experienced Senior Industrial Designer to join our Consumer ID team. You will be part of a multi-disciplinary group of designers developing products for Garmin’s outdoor, fitness, marine, and automotive markets-- products like action cameras, handheld navigation, marine radars, cycling

View the full design job here

"Replacing Guns with Selfie Sticks" Meme

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In America at least, half of the population loves guns and the other half doesn't. But everyone sure loves their selfie sticks. So why shoot people with guns when you can shoot yourself with a selfie stick?

These images have been making the rounds, and there's even a Tumblr for them. As usual, attribution of who created which image has become impossible as the photos get endlessly recirculated. So enjoy, and tip your cap to the Photoshoppers who toil in anonymity.

Lastly, there's this:

Via Petapixel

Host Your Own Hunger Games With President Snow's Panem China

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Did you watch the scrappy kids running around the Hunger Games and think they looked boring and overfed? Did you wait through the fight scenes for a glimpse of the opulence and intrigue of the Capitol elite? Do you love power, beauty, child-on-child violence, and lethally good dinner parties? This auction might be for you. 

Starting today, you can bid on the real porcelain dinner service used by President Snow in Hunger Games: Mockingjay–Part 2

Each item in the 20 piece dinner set bears the refined gilding, gold leaf and bold Panem insignia you'd expect on the table of the leader of a dictatorial yet taste-conscious hellscape. (As the critical eyes at CF File note, the designers clearly did their presidential dinnerware homework.) 

The set is made by non-fictional porcelain manufacturer Maison de la Porcelaine of France, and features four settings of large plates, dinner plates, salad plates, demitasse cups ("for espresso or a strong after dinner drink") and saucers. Whether that's an endorsement of real-life murder mystery dinners or not, this set could certainly bring an extra something to your entertaining to help command respect from your peon followers.

The bidding on Invaluable begins at $600. May the odds be ever full of flavor. 

JK this one's Reagan's.


LINKA Unlocks Your Bike For You

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The Bluetooth-enabled LINKA bike lock will recognize you through your smartphone and automatically unlock as you approach. The aesthetic and form factor were designed to make cyclists excited to put a lock on their prized bikes. The round, streamlined design highlights the lock’s enhanced functionality.

View the full content here

How To Move An Entire City Without Losing Its Heart

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The remote Swedish city of Kiruna is endangered by sinkholes, but no one is leaving. Not exactly. The sinkholes are caused by iron ore extraction at a nearby mine. The mine is massive, publicly owned, and it has been the sole reason Kiruna exists for around a century. Despite the extreme disturbances and danger the sinkholes can cause, the mine is too huge (a.k.a. too economically important) to close, so the Swedish government has proposed an equally drastic measure: they're moving Kiruna's entire city piece by piece. 

Though it's the farthest northern city in Sweden, a full 20km past the Arctic Circle, the area is one of the biggest municipal areas in the world, and home to over 18,000 people. So while the population isn't dense, moving the town is no simple barn raising. 

This official short documentary covers the dilemma, the questions it raises, and a few of the solutions they're finding. 

While having your whole hometown condemned as hazardous is a pretty big blow, this plan makes the transition seem at least logistically manageable. Planning began back in 2004, and will be carried out over a few decades. For now, the city is already moving people out of unstable neighborhoods by buying residents' property at market price plus 25%, and providing space in newly developed safer areas. 

The city re-planning effort is also considering what it means to transplant a community. In doing so, their efforts have identified examples of socially crucial architecture, like the beloved historic church which will be moved intact to the new city center. Meanwhile, construction on replacements for other civic buildings has begun. 

The short film only talks to a few locals, largely two who own a business and have bought a new house, but their interests are representative of long term residents in many cities experiencing change. Their business has been in the family for generations, and while the new house is nice (and safe), they rely on the promise that the new business district will feel as familiar and inviting as before.

This 10 minute doc understandably leaves you with more questions than answers, since the range of people affected must be quite huge, the methods of the planners were only lightly discussed, and the economic and environmental impacts of the mine were utterly unmentioned. How does a city on the move support renters? How would this process differ if the LKAB mine were privately owned?

What would would the community need to save if your city had to move? 

Weekend Reads: Meet the Father of Stainless Steel and a Critique of the "Secrets to Creativity" Self-Help Craze

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Core77's editors spend time combing through the news so you don't have to. Here's a weekly roundup of our favorite stories from the World Wide Web.

Maximum Efficiency

I won't lie, all those Soylent billboards that have been sprouting up around L.A. are working on me. All the nutrients you need in one bottle with none of the cooking, chewing or dish-doing? Sign me up! But wait, it gets even better, because Soylent has commissioned Berlin-based fashion designer Nhu Duong to create utilitarian uniforms for the company. Maybe in the not-too-distant future we'll all velcro into our jumpsuits, slam a Soylent and get to work. 

Rebecca Veit, columnist, Designing Women

Portugal Power

Last week Portugal claimed a clean energy milestone by powering the entire country for four consecutive days on renewable energy alone. A combination of wind, solar and hydro-generated electricity kept the lights on for an 107-hour run. The news of Portugal's success is an exciting glimpse at how green energy could reshape the energy industry in Europe and beyond.

—Linyee Yuan, managing editor

The Restaurant Inside a High Security Prison

There is a wide range of statistical evidence showing that educating prisoners dramatically reduces their chance of returning to prison, which is one driving inspiration for London-based charity The Clink, which runs four gourmet restaurants inside prisons where meals are expertly prepared by prisoners nearing the end of their sentences—"'Prisoners get the chance to learn practical skills with which we can try to help them get jobs,' says Chris Moore, the chief executive of Clink. 'But the soft skills are as important: Confidence, motivation, pride and waking up in the morning with a sense of purpose.'"

—Allison Fonder, community manager

Creative Vacuum: The Latest Vogue in Success Literature Showcases an Ugly Elitism

"There is something about the merging of bossery and nonconformity that beguiles the American mind. The genre marches irresistibly from triumph to triumph. Books pondering the way creative minds work dominate business-best-seller lists. Airport newsstands seem to have been converted wholly to the propagation of the faith. Travel writers and speechwriters alike have seen the light and now busy themselves revealing the brain's secrets to aspiring professionals."

—Eric Ludlum, editorial director

The Father of Modern Metal

This excerpt from Jonathan Waldman's forthcoming book, Rust: The Longest War, tells the captivating tale of Harry Brearley, a man who "saw himself as steel's savior, its priest" and, through sheer determination, brought us stainless steel. It's a story of vision. As Brearley himself puts it: "The range of the mind's eye is restricted by the skill of the hand. The castles in the air must conform to the possibilities of material things—border-line possibilities perhaps; or, if something beyond the known border is required, the plan must wait until other dreams come true."

—Alexandra Alexa, editorial assistant

How to Make a Bar Stool, a Hand Tool Storage Wall and a Loft Bed in This Week's Maker's Roundup

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Loft Bed Build

Found another maker to add to the mix! Here Laura Kampf builds a loft bed for a friend, whose tiny room has an unneeded door that can be blocked off. We're impressed that Kampf chose to build the bed using timber-framing methods, rather than using those lousy-looking big-box-store joist hangers:

Axe Restoration with In-Store Demo

In this video Jimmy DiResta hauls his own 10-inch bandsaw to the Filson store in Manhattan's NoHo, giving a rare, live demonstration of how to make an axe handle. He also shows us, at both his country and city shops, how he restored the head, finishes the handle up, and creates the leather cover.

New, Free Workbench Top

You've gotta love that Matthias Wandel is not only a meticulous engineer, but an enthusiastic dumpster diver. In this video he spots a huge piece of melamine-topped particle board in the street and reckons it will make a perfect new top for his workbench:

Drill-Powered "Scooter-Type Thingy"

This is why you want Izzy Swan around during the zombie apocalypse. In this video he takes a gear reduction box, some metal, some wood, a 36-volt cordless drill and creates a functioning personal transportation device. Mistakes abound in this video, but Swan has left them in for educational value:

Bi-Level Vertical-Lift Bridge Model

Here Frank Howarth shows us a father-and-son project involving lots of problem solving. If you're a schoolboy who needs to build a model of a bi-level vertical-lift bridge for a class project, you can't do much better than having a shop-savvy architect dad:

Turned Jewelry Box

Tired of taking crap from safety hawks for wearing his wedding band around spinning power tools, Marc Spagnuolo now switches to a silicone substitute while in the shop. Which means he needs a place to store his real wedding ring during shop hours, which is a perfect excuse to turn this cylindrical jewelry box with a friction-fit lid:

Garage Ceiling Overhaul

Here April Wilkerson's husband gets an assist from April, as the two of them replace a garage ceiling:

Making a Hand Tool Storage Wall

In order to organize his hand tools, Jay Bates is opting for the "First Order Retrievability" system popularized by Adam Savage. Bates gets an assist from Matt Lane, who already has experience with his own hand tool storage wall:

How to Make a Bar Stool or Shop Stool

Just four guys horsing around in a shop, while banging out a workmanlike stool from cheap materials:

Laser-Cut Stacked-Slice Skull

David Picciuto's got a Full Spectrum Laser machine, and this week puts it to use creating a convincing human skull using both cardboard and modeling clay:

Fast, Inexpensive Shelving

Here Ana White takes inexpensive 1x2s and 1x6s and quickly transforms them into shelving:

Land Cruiser Storage and Built-In Drawers

Cool project from Bob Clagett, who builds a storage unit to go in the back of his truck, yet remains more or less invisible:

Learn to Use Sketchup

For those of you that can't afford licenses for the big-dog CAD programs, Sketchup provides a reasonably robust, free alternative. Here Ron Paulk shows you the best way to get started with the program:

Super-Bright DIY Portable LED Light Panel

Another great one from Linn from Darbin Orvar, who this time builds a slim, portable, powerful LED light panel:


A High-Aesthetic Poncho That'll Make You Wish For Rain

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Rainy days are a bummer enough without having to slosh around in a frumpy raincoat and boots. That's why The Arrivals' latest take on the waterproof poncho feels like a ray of sunshine, providing super stylish yet functional garb to combat anything Mother Nature might send your way.

The sleek poncho is a limited edition collaboration with Brooklyn-based Snarkitecture, an experimental art/architecture studio founded by Daniel Arsham and Alex Mustonen. The ELEMENT Poncho marks the first partnership for The Arrivals, but since the outerwear brand was also co-founded by two architects, Jeff Johnson and Kal Vepuri, it was a particularly synergetic collaboration.

"Being huge fans of Snarkitecture's work and their minimalist design approach as a whole, we had them on our radar from early on," says Johnson, co-founder and Creative Director of The Arrivals. "We started our initial conversation spring of 2015 and immediately began a dialogue around applying a reductive design approach to the discipline of outerwear design—how can we reduce a jacket to its simplest form and core functionality, while instilling an element of curiosity and wonder."

Snarkitecture kicked the project off with an initial concept presentation, but Johnson and Mustonen kept an open dialogue throughout each phase of the project—from fleshing out the initial design concept to the final construction. "In any collaborative experience, you're faced with constant decisions that can layer complexity to the concept," Johnson says. "We wanted to do the opposite. Keep the finished product as close to the concept as possible. Don't clutter the concept with excess, rather continue to refine, rework and let the integrity of the design and material concept speak for themselves."

That initial concept was of form for function: "Creating a poncho that not only protects you from the elements of your environment, but allows a level of preparedness, through its interior pocketing grid," Johnson says. "These simple ideas drove our collaboration."

The teams looked at silhouettes that represented a reductive design approach to outerwear, with Mustenen and Gil Sunshine (a junior designer at Snarkitecture) taking the lead on developing the central theme around the idea of contrast—pairing notions of form versus function, minimal versus ornate. From there, both teams began prototyping silhouette studies at The Arrivals' studio in search of a shape that "merged familiarity with the foreign," Johnson says.

"Our goal was to create an anti-silhouette, void of ornament or articulation, allowing the user to approach the design without pretense," Johnson says. The final result took inspiration from Scandinavian home design (in true architect-cum-outwear-designer fashion), distilling the most elemental idea of outerwear as protective shelter with an A-line shape. "The A-line silhouette is ideal for hooded protection from the elements and water dispersion," Johnson says.

The A-line silhouette became the core form of the ELEMENT Poncho, a heat-welded, laser cut poncho with a minimalist exterior. "We felt this poncho required even more refining and less exterior detail than some of our previous styles," Johnson says. "This poncho represents a union of ideals, reducing the design to the essential and innovating beyond the norm. We focused the design on a minimalist shell, but really amplified the level of detail and designed the interior to optimize utility."

In contrast to its minimal exterior, the interior of the ELEMENT Poncho is highly articulated—outfitted with laser cut hidden pockets, ear-bud eyelets, waterproof safety compartments and over-sized bucket pockets. "Early on in the design process, we came across a retro illustration of a man with an open overcoat, displaying a stereotypically sketchy collection of Rolex watches lining the coat interior," Johnson says. "It was exciting to pull this familiar element into the design process; the goal being to create a reinterpreted sense of nostalgia and irreverence. This concept formed the basis of the ELEMENT Poncho: a minimalistic exterior contrasting with a highly considered interior."

With both the exterior and interior resolved, The Arrivals worked on developing a unisex pattern that could be easily worn while maintaining extreme functionality. "We began with a simple A-line, hooded poncho drape in our studio, then worked for months with the most talented pattern-makers in NYC to develop a silhouette that merged wearability with outerwear functionality," Johnson says.

Colors were a no-brainer here, given Snarkitecture's preferred palette of black and white. The team opted for Lunar White and Space Black exteriors, and used a stain-resistant, waterproof poly-blend woven shell, and a waterproof poly-spandex micro-mesh shell, respectively, chosen for their optic color and technical properties. Polyester mesh was used for lining and pocketing, while reflective polyurethane heat-seal film was used for the pocket facings.

The designers worked closely with the pattern-makers to determine the best finishing method for performance and minimal aesthetic, resulting in heat-sealed edges for a clean yet raw edge. (Brush up on the heat-sealing process here.) "This is a relatively new technique, especially when manufacturing in the United States," Johnson says. "In order to create a water-tight heat-seal, we partnered with a local New York-based factory that is quickly becoming the leader in heat-sealing, binding and seam taping. We worked closely with them to produce a design which leveraged the best of their heat-seal machinery and construction to create a design complete with taped, waterproof pockets and clean-cut, heat-sealed edges."

Assembly of the garment's complex interior proved to be one of the most time-consuming aspects of the design, with much attention paid to how the pieces fit together. The Arrivals work with a Japanese vendor who laser-cuts each of the reflective polyurethane 3M panels for the pockets, which are then applied to heat-seal transfer sheets before being shipped to The Arrivals' factory back in the United States.

"Manufacturing in NYC has its undeniable benefits of hands-on development and construction with high quality product, however, much of the contemporary construction techniques such as laser cut details, heat welding and seam sealing are often outsourced overseas," Johnson says. "After much research, we connected with a progressive factory that had recently been awarded a CFDA grant in order to purchase the cutting-edge machinery that we needed to construct the ELEMENT Poncho. This became a particularly amazing partnership as we brought forth a new design challenge at the exact moment they were beginning to test their new equipment. They were highly motivated and collaborative in working with us to push the limits of their new tools."

The Arrivals' factory heat-seals those transfer sheets to the interior facings on the poncho, following a diagrammatic pocket key provided by the design team. Assembled facings are then sent to a local laser-cutting vendor, who cuts the final pocket openings into the reflective facings.

After returning to the factory, cut mesh and shell self pocket bags are taped to the back of the facings depending on the utility of the particular pocket, creating a secure water-tight hold. With the interior facings laser-cut, heat-sealed and complete, the garment shell, lining and hood are assembled. Heat-sealed labels are pressed on, and co-branded tonal poncho snaps are applied. The garment is pressed and then shipped out to customers.

"For me, the idea of co-creating a product with a collective like Snarkitecture allowed a connection to bridge the often autonomous fields of art and design, creating a piece that is both emotionally impactful but also meticulously considered in both craft and functionality," Johnson says. 

The ELEMENT Poncho is available via The Arrivals' website for $345.


Odini: This Security Camera Keeps You Safe While Still Respecting Your Privacy

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Say hello to Odini, your loyal guardian and companion. Unlike traditional security cameras which are often static, intrusive objects, Odini is a discreet mobile solution which learns to respect your privacy and space while you are at home but is first, on the scene to monitor and record an event while you are away. When you're out of the house, he detects changes in the environment which he records and communicates to you via your smartphone app, enabling you to remotely monitor any situation.

View the full content here

"Preset" Chess, Yea or Nay?

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It's true that I'm no Grandmaster, but when I've played chess with friends, I've never needed the game to start immediately. In fact the few seconds it takes to set up the board is a great time to trash-talk your opponent, explaining that you'll p0wn their pawns and send their knights to the glue factory.

Nevertheless, product designer Andre Persidsky is betting that some chess players are in a hurry. Hence he's designed Preset Chess:

My first thought was that the board seems rather small—it's 7.5" square—but perhaps it's designed primarily for travel. And while the set has received a lot of online buzz, I can't quite see what the fuss is about, and there are a couple of things that don't add up for me. Number one is when they show the following clip in the video and state "Precision crafted from the highest quality wood materials:"

Is it me, or is that a chunk of pine?

Second part that doesn't add up is this image below:

At top right it says "CNC precision routed holder base carved from a single block of hardwood." But you can clearly see by the grain lines, in the image above and the two below, that it's not a single block, but a glue-up.

In any case, the Kickstarter campaign is offering the sets for $59, and at press time they'd garnered about $5,000 towards a $15,000 goal, with 34 days left to pledge.

What say you: Gimmick, or useful innovation?

From Concept to Product in 8 Weeks? Nascent Objects Launches A New Design Incubator To Prove It's Possible.

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The statement "Hardware is Hard" has become the go-to phrase for companies interested in producing physical tech products. And it's true—compared with the typical product cycles of an app, hardware requires much longer timelines, larger teams and way more up front investment to get something off the ground. Despite these barriers, Kickstarter, Indiegogo and the halls of CES are still lined with countless connected-autonomous-smart-wearable-device-gadgets etc—however many of them still fail to make it the final mile to market. 

One up-and-coming company looking to redefine how hardware is fundamentally built, while also addressing how to break down these barriers is Silicon Valley-based Nascent Objects. Their platform enables anyone to easily create hardware from prototype to consumer-ready device quicker than ever before and offers support to bring that product from vision to launch with their new incubator program starting in July.

While advancements in rapid prototyping, open-source development platforms and 3D printing have lowered barriers for anyone trying to prototype a product, this is only a small fraction of the actual development cycle. Nascent Object's incubator will take applicants all the way from ideas to batch manufacturing and launch with the help of award-winning design studio Ammunition. Even more impressive, the first-time incubator will do this in just 8 weeks—a timeline that would be impossible without the help of their modular system and software platform.  

Nascent Object modules allows anyone to build consumer electronics that are readily scaleable. 

Nascent Objects is able to achieve this kind of incredible speed for incubator participants and users of their platform because their modular system allows for incredible flexibility throughout the entire product development process. On the product side, they produce a growing range of plug-and-play modules that give inventors and budding hardware entrepreneurs the chance to combine functionalities they need to bring their product to life. Each of their modules can be swapped out with the ease of replacing a battery and have the added benefits of pre-programmed firmware and certifications.

Nascent offers a range of modules allowing designers to easily build specific functions into their products. 

While modularity is cool on its own, where Nascent Objects really sets itself apart is in providing software tools that automate technical engineering tasks and a revolutionary 3D printing-based manufacturing process. In the software tool, product designers drag-and-drop functional modules onto any 3D shape that becomes the form of the product. The software takes care of the mechanical and electrical design. The output is a product design file that is then sent through Nascent's manufacturing process, which prints both the object and the conductive pathways. Simply plug in the modules and you have functional hardware that can be easily scaled from batches of one to thousands.

See Nascent Object's software platform in action. 

The obvious benefit here is that Nascent Objects has found a unique way to bypass many of the most time consuming and expensive parts of producing hardware products—allowing anyone to design and manufacture their products. Likewise, gadgets built with Nascent Objects' modules have the added benefit of being reusable, upgradable and customizable.

Modules come with a variety of functions and can be recombined to create literally tens of thousands of different products. 

While developing the line of modules, Nascent Objects did a teardown of over 600 consumer electronics. What they found is that the majority of devices brought to market since 2012 could be build by combining just 15 different modules. They have tested this hypothesis by teaming up with Ammunition to develop products such as Droppler, a device to track your water usage via sound. The beauty of Droppler, or indeed the entire range of Nascent-enabled devices, is that microphone module can be pulled into an Amazon Alexa-activated speaker or sound reactive light and so on. 

Droppler combines the Nascent Objects modules into an elegant form - the result of a collaboration with design studio Ammunition. 

Nascent is providing additional support for aspiring designers and hardware entrepreneurs through their new 8-week incubator program beginning in July 2016. The first of its kind, Nascent Objects will provide the opportunity for promising ideas that use any combination of the Nascent modules to apply for the chance to team up and turn their idea into a launch-ready product.

Unlike many other incubators in the technology space, Nascent is providing the chance to tap into the excellent minds of not only their team, but also the creatives at Ammunition for a crash course in product development and go-to-market strategy. The format is simple but smart. Applicants from any background provide the idea and, if selected to participate, will work with Nascent and Ammunition develop the concept, analyze market fit and, of course, design and manufacture the functional product. Feedback and expertise will be delivered through flexible one-on-one sessions and design reviews either in-person or remotely. The result will be a launch-ready device that can be put into production at scale with flexible support based on the requirements of the project and consumer demand.

We're looking forward to what comes out of the first incubator class. For more information or to apply for the first incubator check out their website. Nascent Objects will be accepting incubator applications until June 21st for the program starting in July 2016.


Five Questions for the Designer That Rendered Laypeople's Bike Sketches

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Gianluca Gimini is a product designer and also a graphic designer and also an illustrator. But he's officially an architect. When you have such talent and passion, I suppose it can't be confined to one arena. He works as a professor in Bologna, Italy and makes incredible projects like Velocipedia.

Velocipedia is the result of Gimini asking friends, family, and complete strangers to draw a bicycle from memory. Gimini collected hundreds of these sketches over a number of years, and then this year, he decided to take an active role in the project. He's made the sketches into real bicycles. Well, digital bicycles. The result is brilliant and fun. It all feels inspired by childhood, yet it's the manifestation of Gimini's sophisticated imagination and craft. 

Following our popular post about the project last month, our colleagues at Hand-Eye Supply sent him a few questions, and he took time out of his busy schedule to answer a few. Our (digital) conversation is below...

Where did you go to school? Did you study product design? Industrial design? How did your background lead you to this project?

I studied as an architect, but that's just because I wasn't aware product design was "a thing" when I was in high school…so I just picked architecture because it seemed the best choice for me. By my second year, I was devouring design books but really never took on a total dislike for architecture. So I finished my studies. My university did give the possibility to sustain one optional course in product design and a final design course in product design, so my thesis was a camper, not a building like most of my colleagues'. After graduating, I sent my CV only to product design firms, finding my first job in a design firm based in Shanghai. That lasted six months, then I went to work as a graphic designer for another studio, also in Shanghai.

I think this first year of work, together with my education defines what I am: a concept designer with a visual approach and an architectural background. That makes me both very interested in thinking processes and representation.

You collected the drawings for a number of years. How long did it take you to do the digital renderings?

Actually not that long. I calculated a minimum of 12 hours of work for the easiest rendering, and a maximum of 16 hours for the most elaborate. So in a few months during which I would carry on the project every evening after work, the job was done.

And what's that process like? From choosing the drawing to the finished rendering?

I went through my drawings hundreds of times. Some typologies recur in the sketches of many different people, so it was hard to define which one was best to pick. I put in quite a bit of my imagination and interpretation, of course. Being the sketches were so rough, I often preferred sketches by friends and family because I felt I could relate more. Sometimes I could guess the exact bike a friend of mine was thinking of while drawing…like Martino who injured his calf on a mountain bike with no chain guard when he was a kid.

The renderings are all done in 2D with an elaborate editing technique that mixes post-production and digital painting. So I would pick a sketch, then I would look for a picture of a real bicycle that seemed a good starting point for my representation. Then I would search for pictures of all the components I needed to match the sketch: saddle, handlebar, chain, etcetera. All had to be shot in the same angle and light. Then everything was put together with many parts designed from scratch. Especially frames.

Are you showing this project anywhere?

It's not official yet but it seems that a very important museum in Budapest will be showing three big prints of my renderings for a period of six months. I'm very happy about this.

If you could choose one of these bikes to actually be made, which would it be? Which one would you want to ride?

I would love Rosalba's to be made. It can't steer so I would not want to ride it, but just to hang it in my living room. I actually got quotations from a bike manufacturer, and I think I can't afford this for now...maybe some day.

Rosalba's Sketch

You can see more of Gimini's work here.

Interview by Jeff Rutherford, originally for Hand-Eye Supply

The World's Largest Timber-Framed Building is Almost Complete—and It's a Replica of Noah's Ark

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Who has the world's largest timber-framed building? A developer in Kentucky claims his organization holds the title. Ken Ham, the president of a religious group called Answers in Genesis, has been constructing a gargantuan replica of Noah's Ark with the goal of opening it as a Christian theme park.

To be honest, I couldn't confirm that this is the absolute largest timber-framed building in the world, but the AIG organization is vehemently claiming it is. In any case the thing is certainly huge, stretching some 510 feet in length. Take a look at the size of these tenons:

Here's a flyover and partial fly-through of the nearly-completed construction:

The attraction will be called Ark Encounter and is due to open this July. Things may or may not go smoothly, as the organization is currently drawing fire: They've announced that they will only hire Christians to staff the park, a policy that seems to flout anti-discrimination hiring laws. We won't touch that with a ten-foot pole, since we have no interest in getting into a religious debate.

We are, however, very interested in why unicorns didn't manage to book passage on the fabled Ark. Religious officials and biblical experts have not provided compelling explanations, so following Core77's tradition of excellence in journalism, we have conducted our own research into the matter. Below are the results of our investigation, providing two plausible theories:


Design Job: How Can Core77 Help? Join the Team as a Client Support Specialist in Stamford, CT

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Core77 is a publishing business operating a network of web sites focused on the creative industries (including Coroflot.com!). We are currently seeking an energetic, self-starting Client Support specialist to work in our office as the primary interface to our clients. This person must communicate extensively and clearly with our audience

View the full design job here

Amazing POV X-Wing & TIE Fighter Battle Shot With Drones

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We've seen amazing things from Corridor Digital before, but they've certainly just topped themselves. Yesterday the tiny production house released the following video, revealing that a small group of talented, driven creatives can produce a spectacle rivaling any Hollywood studio's capabilities. Shot using a combination of drones, practical effects, VFX and 3D modelmaking, this X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter dogfight has to be seen to be believed:

p

I was even more impressed watching the "How we did it" video below. Not because what happens on-camera rivals the action in the one above, but because of:

1) The amount of technical and practical feats these guys have to achieve to make this real

2) The fact that they don't completely lose their sh*t as they're cooped up in the office doing the pressure-laden postproduction

3) The sheer number of moving parts involved in such a production, and 4) The fact that they take the time to credit others, from the pilots at Rotor Riot to their Patreon supporters

Anyone who's ever spent late nights in a studio, whether at school or at work, will be able to relate to the vibe generated by a hard deadline. (Also, if you're wondering why they spell it "wrendering" on-screen, that's a nod to Wren Weichman, the guy manning the VFX decks.)

See Also:

Superman POV Drone Video

Drone Santa



SAVE THE DATE: The 2016 Core77 Conference Takes Place in LA on September 29-30

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Summer may be around the corner, but here at Core77 we're getting ready for our favorite time of the year! That's right, the 2016 Core77 Conference Designing Here/Now is returning to sunny Downtown Los Angeles September 29th and 30th and approaching fast.

Join us this fall for a symposium bringing together global design talent for inspired talks by luminaries from the disciplines of art, science, engineering and business. This year we've added a full day of extracurricular activities including behind-the-scenes studio visits, a Core77-curated marketplace and skill-building workshops.

Save the date. Sign up for updates. Pitch ideas. Open your studio doors. Volunteer! We want you in on all the action.

Find out more at:

core77.com/conference


Seven Things You Probably Didn't Know About Eileen Gray

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This is the latest installment of our Designing Women series. Previously: Eight Things You Probably Didn't Know About Ray Eames

Eileen Gray was a tremendously influential 20th-century architect and furniture designer, but we're guessing that many of our readers know little about her life and career beyond her three most famous designs—those being her adjustable chrome side table from 1927 (now available from DWR), her tire-shaped 1929 Bibendum chair (named after the Michelin Man) and the E.1027 modernist villa on the Côte d'Azur (remarkably, her first house). So here are seven highlights from a career that helped to establish a place for women in modern design.

Portrait of Eileen Gray by Berenice Abbott, 1927. Photo via the National Museum of Ireland
Gray's E.1027 table shares its name with her villa, where she used it as a bedside table. The tabletop height can be adjusted to accommodate different uses.
Gray named her Bibendum chair after the Michelin Man, for its tire-shaped padding. Above, an original model from 1930.

1. After early success, her work was largely forgotten for decades

Although she found a receptive audience in the 1920's and '30s, Gray's reclusive nature kept her from championing her own work, admitting, "I was not a pusher and maybe that's the reason I did not get to the place I should have had." Gray was self-taught, and as a woman working in a predominately male field she was at an extreme disadvantage professionally. There was also a larger matter of misappropriation—with some of the credit for her E.1027 house bestowed upon the architect and critic Jean Badovici, her lover at the time. Although Badovici consulted on technical matters, it is clear that Gray designed and oversaw the construction of the house as well as the design of all the furniture and fixtures.

Quietly living and working alone for thirty years, Gray was slowly rediscovered by collectors and critics in the late 1960's and early 70's, and by the time of her death in 1976 at the robust age of 98, she had become a design sensation again.

The Transat armchair with a pivoting headrest, circa 1929. Above and below images via the Victoria and Albert Museum
Folding hammock chair, 1938
Sketches for various types of chairs with tubular frames, circa 1965–70

2. She got her start as a lacquer artist

Gray left her native Ireland in 1902 to study art in Paris, ultimately finding an interest in the craft of lacquer and training under her Japanese mentor, Seizo Sugawara. Her biographer, Peter Adam, writes that Gray "mastered the medium to a perfection that assures her a place as one of the great lacquer artists in history." She translated her new skill into furniture design, lacquering luxurious Art Deco–inspired chairs, tables, screens and wall panels for wealthy clients. Later, after fully embracing the modernist design aesthetic of the 1920s, she would describe her earlier lacquer works as "the sins of my youth."

Gray's lacquer tools
Gray's 1923 Blocks screen consists of 28 black-lacquered panels that pivot on rods

3. She created an alter ego to sell her work

In 1922, Gray opened a shop in Paris to sell her designs. Instead of naming it after herself, she called the store Jean Désert, in the hopes that a man's name would signal a seriousness that a feminine name couldn't provide at the time. Her ruse was too successful and ultimately she had to have letterhead printed for the imaginary business partners "Jean Désert et E. Gray."

Gray opened Jean Désert on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré to showcase and sell her work. Image via the Victoria and Albert Museum 

4. She choreographed “mechanical ballets”

Gray designed furniture and interior systems with a witty ingenuity that allowed for constant transformation, or as she put it, "obtaining several uses for the same object." Bathroom mirrors rotated, headboards revealed pivoting storage compartments, tabletops could be lowered and raised to the perfect height, terrace chairs could be folded up when not in use, and other chairs became stepladders. Adam wrote of her designs, "Nothing ever seems to be what it is … Everything is constantly in flux."

Gray's folding S chair, circa 1932–34, was designed to save space when not in use.
A design for a wooden cube chest with pivoting drawers
Gray's carpenter Andre-Joseph Roattino demonstrating her design for a metal chair that could also be used as a stepladder.
Gray was also constantly refining her designs, and almost all of her pieces have a slight variation. Above are two versions of a barstool she designed for E.1027.

5. She was a hopeless romantic

Gray was known in Paris for her amorous affairs with men and women—most famously with the chanteuse Marisa Damia (whose pet panther would join them for rides about town in a Chenard-Walcker roadster) and later with the much younger Jean Badovici—and she would often memorialize her relationships by coding them into the titles of her work. A set of rugs became "D" and "E" for her and Damia's initials; her first house became E.1027, with the "E" for Eileen, the "10" for Jean ("J" being the tenth letter of the alphabet), "2" for Badovici, and "7" for Gray. She was also extremely generous with her money and talent—Badovici encouraged her to build him "a little refuge" in the south of France and she did just that, funding the entire structure and putting it solely in his name. After their breakup it was Gray who moved out.

The exterior of E.1027, Gray's first built house, which she designed for her lover Jean Badovici in the south of France, 1926–29. Photo via the National Museum of Ireland
Image of the completed living room with Gray's custom furnishings. Photo via Friends of E.1027

6. She had a complicated relationship with Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier had a huge influence on Gray, and in return he praised her work, writing to her that E.1027 had a "rare spirit." However, their mutual admiration suffered when Le Corbusier, as a guest of Badovici's and without Gray's knowledge or approval, painted eight large Cubist frescoes on E.1027's pristine walls. Undoubtedly the master architect thought he was improving her design, but as biographer Peter Adam bluntly describes the event, "It was rape. A fellow architect, a man she admired, had without her consent defaced her design." Adding insult to injury, he painted the murals in the nude.

Later, Corb would build a structure overlooking E.1027, and ultimately his friend Marie-Louise Schelbert purchased the house at auction as his proxy, fueling the narrative that he had a chauvinistic desire to dominate Gray's achievement. Even worse, because of their tangle, the house and some of its furnishings were often incorrectly attributed to Le Corbusier in architecture publications even after Gray's death.

Le Corbusier at work on one of the eight murals he painted without Gray's permission at E.1027 during the late 1930s
Corb relaxing in the living room of E.1027 under a completed mural

7. Her masterpiece was left to rot

Completed in 1929, E.1027 is now considered a masterpiece of modernist architecture, but for much the later half of the 20th century it was left to decay, passing through numerous neglectful hands. First it suffered damage when the Germans used it for target practice during World War II. A decade later, when Badovici passed away suddenly without a will, the house went to his sister, a Romanian nun, with little interest in its upkeep. Although it was better looked after by Schelbert, Le Corbusier had to stop her from throwing Gray's custom furniture into a bonfire. The villa then passed to Schelbert's physician, who let it deteriorate, sold all of Gray's furniture and was found murdered there in 1996; E.1027 was then vandalized by squatters. It wasn't until 1999 that the house was declared a historic monument and restorations became possible, with much of the work finally completed last year.

Exterior view of the restored E.1027. Photo via Friends of E.1027

Bonus: Check out this campy biopic based on Gray's life and filmed on site at E.1027


Three Ways to Move a House

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They say it takes a village to raise a child, but in Southeast Asia, it takes a village to raise and move a house:

This second approach is more modern, and shot in a much artsier way. New-Zealand-based filmmaker Thomas Gleeson's short, "Home," is an unnarrated mini-doc meant to "[explore] the idea of what makes a house a home:"

Whomever failed to secure the stove was presumably fired.

Portland, Oregon-based Path Architecture has designed a house for the specific purpose of moving—but in place. Their "359" tiny house is a 12' x 12' structure, complete with plumbing, that can be rotated to face (or avoid) the sun. Impressively, the rotation can be enacted manually by two children:

It's called "359" because it doesn't actually rotate the full 360 degrees; they need that final degree to keep the plumbing and electrical connections intact. We assume there's either some kind of physical brake, or those kids are extremely coordinated.


Google's Modular Phone: Clever Concept or an Awkward Crossover Between Product and Interaction Design?

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This week we bring you our pressing topic of the moment straight from our reader-driven discussion boards! We recently caught wind of Google's plan to deliver their Ara modular phone concept to consumers in 2017, a cellphone with a magnetic modular backboard for different gadgets like speakers, camera lenses, storage space, etc. (You may remember the origin of this idea from Dave Hakkens' viral Phonebloks concept video.)

Needless to say, designers are toggling with quality of such a solution by Google. Core77 discussion board member Cyberdemon says:

"I'll chime in that my predictions 2 years ago remained correct - they went away from the 'Everything modular' approach to a 'smart phone with a bunch of USB connectors for accessories'.
It's more logical than trying to interconnect the deeply complex inner workings, but makes it easier to enable things like a modular camera, sensors, or batteries like they've chosen to do.
It's still an interesting project, but people have already created smartphone platforms in less 'modular' ways (see iPhone credit card readers, barcode scanners, snap on DSLR lenses, etc) so now it's really more about the packaging than the technology."

Core77-er mo-i also brings up a few interesting points about the lasting potential for such an interchangeable object with many small parts—"These concepts show the limitations of physical product design in a hurting way...I mean, interesting idea. I like it, but I doubt there is a mass market for it. Isn't ruggedness one of the sales factors in phones for the last years? How do you get those connections water tight and lasting?"

So what do you think—is this a clever step forward or a sloppy solution to marrying the benefits between interactive design and physical design elements? How could Google rethink this to make it more sustainable? 

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!)


With Visual Puzzles and Funky Still Lifes, "Alphabetacool" Is a Children's Book for Adults (Too)

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Adi Goodrich and Sean Pecknold are two parts of the Los Angeles based Sing Sing Studio. They're prolific and immensely talented visual artists, and they've come together, through an obsession with children's books and a belief that kids are smarter than us, to make a children's book of their own.

We're very excited to have their book,Alphabetacool, and I sent them a few questions so we could get a little more insight into this incredibly fun book they've made—one that's more intellectual and uniquely visual than any kids book we've recently seen. Also, it's good for us adults too...

HES: You two have a huge catalogue of diverse work, and now you're making this step into books. Has this been something you've always been interested in? Or is it something you sort of happened upon amidst other work?

ADI: I've been obsessed with children's books since I was in college, and would spend most of my research time in the Harold Washington Children's library looking like a total creep and loving the design of children's books from the 60's-70's. I've always wanted to make a children's book, but never thought I could until Sean pushed this project for our studio. 

SEAN: I've always loved kid's books. Maurice Sendak, Roald Dahl, Dr. Seuss, Richard Scarry; they made such cool worlds in their books. When I was first getting into animation a few years ago, I would look at some of those books for inspiration. Adi and I had been taking photos together for a couple months, and this seemed like the perfect place to start making kid's books. 

HES: We've been talking a lot about the intellectual side of the book. It really does seem like it will force, especially young readers, to make some significant linguistic and visual connections—beyond what a lot of children's books do. Was this something you went at with intention, as a goal for the book? And how did you cultivate that theme throughout?

SEAN: We wanted the book to appeal to both kids and our friends, and wanted to make some fun and weird still-life photos, so we didn't restrict ourselves too much to reach a specific age range or learning level. And our collaboration with Jeremiah Chiu on the typography puzzles was also very open, we gave him a lot of freedom to explore and have fun designing the hints for each page. It's been fun to read the book with kids and see what they notice. I think a good kid's book is one that you come back to and get different things from at different ages, so if there is a little joke or something in there, that a 3 year old won't get at first, maybe she will when she's 8.

HES: What came first, the object or the word? What I mean is: what was the selection process like for the words to include? 

ADI: We were in New York for the fall making photos as our studio practice out there. I was frustrated at making photos of random objects—I thought it was a waste of my time. But, basically that's what we decided to do. One evening, we went on a walk and I cried a little bit about how I was feeling unmotivated and that I was wasting my time in the studio. (This was one of many creative meltdowns I'm sure everyone has) Sean looked at me very confidently and said, "O.K., we are going to make a children's book. We'll do it with random objects we find around the studio, outside and in grocery stores around the neighborhood. We're going to make 26 of them. It's going to be an alphabet book."  

HES: You work a lot in video, photo, and animation. What was a challenge (or an expected reward) of the bookmaking process that you hadn't discovered in other work you'd done?

ADI: This was our first photo project together, so one of the challenges was with the equipment—we had just bought a lighting kit—so that was definitely a challenge. I have personally styled so many still life photographs, so that was pretty easy, but the hardest part of the project was getting it printed. Printed within time, budget and the quality we wanted. Our dream is to have it be published by a publisher we respect and who sees the importance of the book. If we could make this a hardcover book, we'd be so happy!

SEAN: I'm primarily an animator and filmmaker so everything I've worked on has been on a screen, which is great, but it was amazing to make something together that ended up in people's hands. The printing for the first-time-ever was challenging. Getting the PDF correctly formatted, and submitted with the correct bleed in time with the right cover and paper, there's so much that goes into it! Luckily our studio-mate Jeremiah has done it a million times, and was able to help us out a lot.

HES: More books in the works?

SEAN: For sure, we are hoping to make at least one book a year. It's great working with Adi because we are always talking about new ideas together, and give each other energy to make those ideas real. I'd love to do a multi-plane book, even with a simple story. We are striving to make visual work, both still and moving that rewards kids and adults alike, the possibilities are endless!

Grab Alphabetacool here

Interview conducted by Jeff Rutherford, originally for Hand-Eye Supply


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