For the past 160 years the Orvis name has stood for a passion for the outdoors, and customer satisfaction. The Rod & Tackle team is seeking a Product Developer responsible for the development, growth, and profit of key Orvis fly fishing sub categories of Waders, Wading Footwear, Outerwear and Vests/Packs.
View the full design job hereNever mind self-driving cars. Smart vehicles are coming... even to those of us who can't afford (or trust) a Tesla. Dutch bike company VanMoof is making a bold move into data-driven rides for the rest of us.
The brand's newest release is the SmartBike, a city commuter with a tough sleek design and innovative digital insides. The first jump forward is a surprising one: if you could lock and track your bike with your smartphone, would you?
While the video is a bit silly, the premise is intriguing. We've seen increasingly excellent remote and digital locking in cars, but the tech has yet to trickle down to the bike industry. The physical components and design on city bikes have improved slowly, but the core locking elements have remained predictable for well over fifteen years.
Integrating the lock hasp into the frame adds testable toughness by making a weak link harder to reach. Making the lock digitally activated removes the keyhole, and thus another weak point, another key, and another clanky step when you arrive. You can unlock with the app or (if you're brave) you can set up touch locking on the bike's dashboard, letting the bike unlock if it recognizes your phone nearby via Bluetooth. A physical remote keyfob can back you up should you run out of juice.
Beyond making an integrated lock that doesn't suck, VanMoof is working hard to update the rider's relationship to the bike itself. The app can provide weather data, ride stats and route recommendations, but the biggest selling point is bigger than whether you should pack a poncho.
Each SmartBike is GPS trackable and guaranteed against theft through the company's Peace of Mind Service. What this means is that any SmartBike stolen (not due to a user-opened lock) can be tracked using the company's proprietary GSM system. If found within two weeks the bike will be returned to the rider. If not the user will receive a new bike of the same type for a small replacement fee.
In my Q+A with co-founder and designer Ties Carlier he discussed why they feel confident moving in this bold direction.
"It's a huge, crazy promise, but we truly believe it's the right thing to do. Until bike companies are willing to carry the burden of bike theft, people will never be able to ride great bikes in their cities. We [at VanMoof] have a long track record on integrated locks, so it was a natural jump to add an electronic component to that system."
While there are multiple traditional locks on the market with impeccable records for theft-deterrence, there's something to be said for this level of security. Insurance programs and bike serial number registries both aim at providing this type of recompense for lost bikes, but without a firm guarantee. As Carlier points out, it can dramatically impact how and what people ride:
"Bike theft is one of the biggest reasons people have for not riding a great bike, and we hope by solving that problem once and for all, more people around the world will be able to invest in a bike they actually enjoy riding, rather than a cheap bike that falls apart after a few months."
The SmartBike itself is a modern-classic commuter based on their prior bikes. It hosts internal 3-speed or 8-speed options, belt drive, disc brakes (low fuss and still great in wet conditions), fenders, front and back dynamo lights integrated into the frame. The bars and seat are attached with theft-proof bolts, adjusted using a proprietary tool included with the bike. It's currently only offered in a single size (ostensibly for riders from 5'5" all the way to 6'5") though hopefully if it takes off they'll expand the sizing.
The bikes are available for presale starting at $1398, and as the company points out in their FAQ, they're meant to last for many years without need for expensive repair or replacement. VanMoof flagship stores are located in Amsterdam, Taipei, Berlin, and Brooklyn, and the bikes are available online.
With enough new tech, could a bike locked by smartphone feel trustworthy?
Of all the things that have gone viral, the Pokémon GOapp might be the strangest. Released less than a week ago in the U.S., the augmented reality game has already spawned countless sore muscles, burned untold collective calories and even been used to commit crimes.
For those of you that have been living under a rock, Pokémon GO is a GPS-map-enabled AR app/game that encourages you to go out into the real world where your device shows you things that aren't there. Namely, the titular Pokémon, which players capture by tossing them a virtual ball.
Once you've got a Pokémon in thrall, players pick up in-game currencies ("candies" and "stardust") to level them up, increasing their combat capabilities. Players then meet up at virtual "Gyms" where they can pit their Pokémons against each other in combat.
Like the Wii before it, Pokémon GO has succeeded in getting folks onto their feet and perspiring. Tweets like...
...have been filling feeds, and countless social media posts boast of sore legs as folks push farther afield to find elusive Pokémons.
One girl in Wyoming wandered down to a local river—water-based Pokémon will be found by actual real-world bodies of water—and made a startling discovery: A real, dead body floating in the shallows. She called 911 and the body was retrieved.
Meanwhile, a satirical website posted an article claiming that a Massachusetts man caused a major highway pile-up after stopping his car to chase a virtual Pokémon. Snopes debunked it, but not before it was widely circulated and believed.
Forbes ran a somewhat deceptively-titled article called "How 'Pokémon GO' Can Lure More Customers To Your Local Business." Throughout the real world, a variety of locations have been chosen by the app's developer, Niantic Labs, as "PokéStops." These can be landmarks, stores, churches and even signposts. Players can visit PokéStops to stock up on experience points and in-game goodies. Should a store owner be lucky enough to have their business designated as a PokéStop, they can purchase in-game "lure modules" that encourage local players to visit. The thing is, store owners cannot designate their own shops as PokéStops—only the game's developers can.
It was just a matter of time before criminals began abusing the game for personal gain. Four enterprising robbers in Missouri located a PokéStop in a remote area. They then purchased the "lure module" to draw unsuspecting gamers to the site, where said gamers were then robbed at gunpoint. The crooks reportedly robbed at least ten people before the police caught them.
Speaking of police, the Duvall Police Department in Washington state are urging local residents not to play the game near their building:
For those of you not yet afflicted with the fever, here's what it looks like to play the game:
Yep, he's got an Aussie accent; last week the game was released in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand, following beta testing in Japan. Those of you in other countries will have to wait for Niantic to work out the technical issues associated with launching the game in other countries. Pocket Lint reports that Canada, the UK and mainlaind Europe will have the game "within days," but there's no word on the rest of the world's Pokémon GO future.
Jumpstart your week with our insider's guide to events in the design world. From must-see exhibitions to insightful lectures and the competitions you need to know about—here's the best of what's going on, right now.
This crash course in interaction design will offer participants a healthy mix of lectures, demos and design workshops (spoiler: you'll be developing a prototype related to public transportation). This course is a primer on Goal-Directed Design, a design thinking methodology created by software designer, Alan Cooper.
San Francisco, CA. July 11, 2016 through July 13, 2016.
Presenters at Furniture Camaraderie will tell quick, ten minute stories about an aspect of furniture design close to their hearts. The program promotes opportunities, collaboration and camaraderie between furniture designers, material suppliers and furnishing marketers.
Singapore. July 12, 2016 at 1:00 PM.
Pop goes the Weasel presents new work by Ann Carrington, an artist best known for breathing new life into ordinary items by transforming them into unexpected sculptures. You can expect to see model ships made out of strings of pearls, flower arrangements made out of silver cutlery and lace curtains 'sewn' from barbed wire.
London, UK. On view through July 31, 2016.
Sharing Models: Manhattanisms invites 30 international architects to produce models of their own visions for the city's future. The models, each a section of Manhattan, establish analytical, conceptual, and physical frameworks for inhabiting and constructing urban spaces.
New York, NY. On view through September 2, 2016.
From the first millennium B.C. until the arrival of Europeans in the sixteenth century, artists from the ancient Americas created small-scale architectural models to be placed in the tombs of important individuals. Design for Eternity sheds light on the role of these objects in mediating relationships between the living, the dead, and the divine while also providing a rare look at ancient American architecture.
New York, NY. On view through September 18, 2016.
Designed by James Corner Field Operations, ICEBERGS represents an underwater world of glacial ice spanning the National Building Museum's enormous Great Hall. The immersive installation features climbable icebergs, "ice" chutes, and caves to explore.
Washington, DC. On view through September 5th, 2016.
If you thought wooden clogs were just in fairy tales or Dutch postcards, you're missing out on the hottest DIY accessory you can make from your own woodpile. They're known as "Klomps" and not only are these klomky footwear still around, they're surprisingly simple to make… at least if you're a champion shoemaker.
This is Mr. Beekhuiszen, one such champion from Eemnes, Netherlands, plying his traditional trade complete with salty commentary:
As noted, the process looks easier than it is. He seems to shape the soaked wood more gracefully than I slice cheese. The real skill, we helpfully learn, is in knowing how to not punch a hole in the sole or top. His entire process uses just three central tools: the hand axe, lock knife and spoon drill. You can use sandpaper if you're fancy.
This second video (of a non-clog-champion) shows a more "modern" approach, using such newfangled gadgets as a lathe.
Both methods require a great deal of deft hand finishing with large tools, and the system for paring down the shape is wild to watch in real time. While the techniques seem simple enough to DIY, I imagine it's hard to get around Beekhuiszen's "do it enough that you're not crappy at it" advice. If you're up to the challenge I recommend the rundown on the detailed and traditionally-minded site Klompenmaken.
Even if these (weirdly soothing) process videos don't make you crave clog carving, they're a serious reminder of what sharp tools can do.
Pillo empowers people of all ages to better manage their health. He can answer your health and wellness questions, connect you directly with healthcare professionals, and securely manage your vitamins and medication; storing, dispensing, and even ordering refills when you need them.
View the full content hereDiscursive design is a broad category that encompasses many 'species.' While speculative design and design fiction have gained recent popularity, we should not forget that there are other design approaches that primarily aim to contribute intellectually through designed objects—voice is the focus rather than utility for the marketplace.
With discursive design's roots in Italian radical design of the 1960s, we should remember that Memphis had an internal focus—they were using design to speak to other designers and to challenge their status quo. To an extent, it is with this same internal focus and using a Memphis-esque medium of higher-end, low-production furniture and furnishings that Cranbrook students recently "spoke" to the design community during New York's Design Week.
A recent collection of work from Cranbrook, 'Fine Design for the End of the World', was exhibited at Skylight Clarkson Square in West Soho. The purpose of the work was to critically analyze the social, economic and environmental uncertainties of the future through the lens of fine design.
The conversation which led to the exhibition evolved over the course of two semesters in Cranbrook's 3D Design graduate program, and was led by Scott Klinker, designer-in-residence and head of the 3D program. Students were encouraged to critically discuss the state of design in relation to our current global context, and built the exhibit around some meta-questions about the current state of design:
_ Will design somehow save the planet?
_ What does design mean in the era of climate change?
_ Will climate change deliver the 'end of the world'?
_ With the pressing need to rethink our culture of production and consumption, can industrialized society willingly change?
_ Can design still improve the world?
_ Do we just look away and keep making shiny, happy objects while the house is burning down?
_ How do we feel about growing up in an age of environmental uncertainty?
_ Will it (environmental uncertainty) lead to tragedy?
_ Should we raise children in this kind of world?
Though it should be noted, "Of course we are not 'for' the end of the world… Instead we hope to point to the potential tragedy we face. It's not about saying we've got the solution; instead the show portrays what it feels like to face these conditions as creative young people who want to improve the world. The work can be read as a poem, a prediction, a protest or a prayer for our collective future."
"Prototypes can circulate as ideas on the internet while never being intended for production. This exhibit, for example, is intended to provoke conversation, not sell stuff."
The below are excerpts from Scott Klinker's interview about the exhibition:
"Historically, Industrial Design has served industry, and therefore has reasons to be complicit with certain lies we tell ourselves about 'progress.' Fine Design doesn't have these constraints. Fine Design can look more objectively and critically at design culture to ask important questions. In fact, it may be Fine Design's duty to ask those questions that Industrial Design can't or won't."
"The formal responses to this subject were varied. Some designers responded with 'mythic' images of mankind, while others responded with forms derived from data. Formal themes of 'excess' and 'disintegration' were prevalent and the overall collection has a somber mood."
"All designers hope to improve the world in some way, whether it's through new functions, forms, processes, aesthetics, etc. Design is a positive force! We hope to make the world more 'human.' ... Designers, like other kinds of citizens, can ask such questions, but it takes collective will and leadership to give healthy answers. Designers have offered many visions of a more sustainable society, but very few ideas have overcome the political status quo so far. "
See the entire interview about the exhibit and all of the work here: http://cranbrookfinedesign.com/
Most people buy hand tools a few at time, but a small number purchase master sets, complete sets of tools for particular trades or types of work. Master sets are typically sold in a case or cabinet; a small set might contain 100 or 200 individual items and a large one 1,000 or more.
I recently saw a large Proto master set at a Stanley Black & Decker media event and was intrigued by the idea of buying so many tools all at once. Proto is owned by SB&D (along with several other industrial tool brands) and is one of many that offer industrial scale master sets; I've seen them on the websites of Snap-on, Armstrong, Wright, and others.
I can't tell you how many tools are in this cabinet. All I know is there are a lot of them and they are incredibly well organized. Master sets of this kind are aimed at industrial users, companies that operate mines, shipyards, factories, and the like. Individual users, such as tradesmen and contractors, could never afford the $25,000 (list) it would cost to buy this particular set.
The drawers of the cabinet are outfitted with shadow boards, foam panels with recesses cut to fit individual tools. Each tool fits into a particular recess; if one is missing or in use you will know it the moment you open the drawer.
Foam shadow boards are a relatively recent development. Early shadow boards were boards with the outlines, or "shadows" of tools painted onto them. Old-school shadow boards have not gone out of style; I saw the one above while touring a tool factory outside of Chicago a couple of years back. Tools hang over their outlines so you can tell at a glance if any are missing. Properly used, shadow boards enforce the time-honored mantra, "a place for everything and everything in its place".
Mostly box wrenches in this drawer
This is a closer look at the top drawer of the cabinet. The pieces with the square holes through them are crowfoot wrenches—and I suppose they do look a bit like the foot of a crow. They're designed to connect to a socket extension and be turned by a ratchet, a setup that allows you to turn nuts and bolts that are inaccessible to other tools. A crowfoot wrench can be a lifesaver when the nut or bolt is in a recessed area and you can't get at it from above with a socket or from the side with a standard length wrench.
Here is the same type of cabinet with the drawers removed. You can tell by looking it's heavily built. The slides are rated for 200 pounds per drawer. The tool cabinets found at big box stores might only be rated 50 or 100 pounds per drawer.
The top drawer runs the full width of the cabinet and is equipped with two sets of slides to double the weight it can carry. Those black knob-like pieces at the front are used to adjust the tension of the slides—to make the drawer easier or harder to pull open.
It seems like they could have fit more in this drawer. The nut drivers look good but I'm not a fan of old-school hex keys because it's a PITA to get them out of an index. I find it easier to use the straight ones that fit into the end of a screwdriver handle.
More wrenches here—box and open end on the left and flare nut wrenches on the right. Those curved handle wrenches are for reaching around obstructions that prevent you from using a conventional wrench.
A nice selection of screwdrivers in this drawer.
A mix of wrenches above: open end, box, offset box, combination, and my favorite—ratcheting wrenches (the five in the front row with the black "jaws")
This is one of the more comprehensive selections of socket drivers I have seen: ratchets, speed handles, sliding T-handles, hinged handles, and more. It'd cost a fortune to buy all the tools in this drawer.
Tin snips and all manner of adjustable wrenches and pliers. The black thing in the black right corner is a chain wrench, which wraps around pipe and grasps it for turning.
The items near the center—the black threaded piece all the way over to the three silver ones with holes through them—assemble into a puller that can be used to pull gears, pulleys, or other components that have been press-fit onto a shaft.
This drawer contains cold chisels, a variety of punches, and every type of hammer one could ask for—except for the kind designed to drive and pull nails. And who would want that kind of hammer in a machine shop?
Of all the drawers in the cabinet, only this deep one comes empty.
This is one of the more interesting shadow boards I have seen. It's from the kitchen at the prison on Alcatraz—a place where knowing that each knife was accounted for was a matter of life and death. Alcatraz has been closed as a prison since the early 1960s. I can't help but wonder who ended up with this now missing cutlery.
Over the last few months we've seen headlines trumpeting breakthroughs in skin-related technologies like 3D printed nose cartilage and lab grown muscles. If those make you feel like you're living on the cusp of a biofuturist hell world, check out the sculptures of Sarah Sitkin, an artist whose work might prove you really are.
Be warned–if prosthetics and disembodied body parts freak you out, this line should probably be your last stop, because Sitkin's work is heavily limbed and heartily creepy. It's also shockingly beautiful.
She works in a range of materials including silicone, wax, and resin. The subjects also range, but there is a through line of skin, deformity, and disconcertingly lifelike forms. She documents the pieces in stunning photos that feel like still lifes and portraits.
While the result can feel ominous or even repulsive, the overall tone is serene. The familiar, intimate, fleshy textures and uncomfortable arrangements are plainly intriguing, and hint at a world even more confusing than our own.
The materials in play are often so deftly used they're impossible to identify. Both the arrangements and their presentation and lighting conjure potent, believable scenarios. If you're anything like me you'll wish you could touch most of them.
In a recent conversation with LA Weekly, she referred to her use of traditionally grotesque elements of the body (her own particularly) as a subject, noting, "I'm perpetually fascinated by how shitty the human design is."
Poorly made tools are a inspiration most designers can relate to, but few aim to create more questions than they started with.
If you're in southern California this month, her first solo show Trifling Matter runs through Saturday, July 30 at Superchief Gallery. Contact the gallery for viewing hours.
If you aren't, you can see more of Sitkin's sporadic and invariably impressive work on her site and on Instagram. Small skin patches and not small sculptures are available for purchase through the gallery store.
All photos by Sarah Sitkin.
Leapfrog Brands is seeking a versatile industrial design intern to join their team of Industrial Designers, Engineers, and Marketers in their West Loop Chicago studio. The candidate will have opportunities to work on a variety of real-world industrial design and product development projects.
View the full design job hereLet this be a marketing lesson for you would-be design entrepreneurs: There is a potentially massive market for specialty tools that have been redesigned and/or made "smart" for laypeople, even if the cost is much higher. Let's look at tape measures, for instance:
- At your local home center, you can pick up a 25' Stanley FatMax for about 20 bucks. It will survive a drop off of an extension ladder and most contractors would be happy to throw one or two of these into the back of the truck.
- You can also buy a cheapie, plastic, 25' generic model for about five bucks. This will not survive falling off of a ladder, but this is the model your average citizen will pick up to help them plot out their frame cluster before living out its retirement in the junk drawer in the foyer.
In essence this is two markets, pro and non-pro. Twenty bucks versus five bucks. But a company called Bagel Labs is targeting a third market, and has designed a gadgetized "smart" tape measure, the Bagel, that will retail for a whopping $90. Here's what it does:
I cannot see the roller feature delivering accurate results. I have no doubt that the wheel can be calibrated to precision, but in terms of knowing precisely where to start and end the rolling, not to mention keeping it in a perfectly straight line during the process, seems a bit of a UX challenge.
One area where I do see the roller being helpful is for upholsterers who need to determine rough fabric lengths for curved objects.
I see a major design flaw in having a round bottom where the "remote" feature is concerned. Any laser measuring device worth its salt has a flat bottom for good reason. Imagine laying this on the floor and attempting to shoot it straight upwards, to figure out how long to cut studs for a new wall, for instance. If the object is not completely plumb, you'll get an incorrect, slightly diagonal measurement.
The aforementioned flaws do not matter to the backers, of which nearly 5,000 have pledged a total of $535,843 at press time, on a $30,000 target. And there are still 22 days left to pledge.
The takeaway: Obviously this is not aimed at contractors, as one of the touted benefits is "No more cutting your fingers on metal tape edges" (we're not making that up). And five-dollar tape measures aimed at the casual user are obviously a huge chunk of the market. But by going "smart" and expensive, Bagel Labs has managed to carve out a pretty good niche. Next we'll see if they can deliver, and we'll be very curious to read the reviews.
Is your apartment too small? Well, imagine if it could do this:
That's the Ori furniture system, designed by Yves Béhar/fuseproject and engineered by the MIT Media Lab's CityHome project, which seeks to wring large-sized living out of the tiny urban spaces we increasingly live in. "How do we maximize our use of these spaces, providing the experience of luxury living without the luxury of size?" Béhar writes. "Better yet, what if your living space could physically transform to create any environment you need? We teamed up with Ori to design a system of robotic furniture: transformable units that can turn 200-300 square feet into a bedroom, living room, home office and closet."
Béhar refers to Ori as its own entity because although the technology was developed at MIT, Ori has now been spun off as its own company under MIT designer/engineer Hasier Larrea's leadership. "Ori is specifically focusing on changing the paradigm of space design," he told Architectural Digest, "by creating tools that allow space to adapt to us and our activities, not the other way around."
Here's how the central unit works:
At the touch of a button, the full-size bed configuration transforms to offer a full-scale bedroom, office, and living room. The retractable bed offers both an office and closet with abundant storage space, and a full media console/credenza for the living room. Both units have an on-device console with presets to control the unit's movement, as well as a corresponding app to reconfigure the unit from anywhere in the world.
The collaboration has developed both full- and queen-sized systems, and we assume they're referring to the mattress sizes. It appears they're bypassing traditional retail and are instead directly targeting three groups: Real estate developers, building owners and individuals. You can learn more here.
Designing Here/Now is back in downtown Los Angeles this September! Bringing together design practitioners, thought leaders, strategists, technologists, entrepreneurs and business developers, this year's Core77 Conference will be an immersive, two-day exploration on how design will lead interdisciplinary teams to build successful, game-changing products of our near future. Focusing on compelling storytelling, human-centered design in the age of technology and lean startup strategies, this year's conference will inspire innovative ways of working and equip attendees with the tools for cultivating exceptional interdisciplinary talent.
Our third annual conference gathers luminaries from the disciplines of design, arts, science, engineering and business to share insights on leading successful projects from concept to launch in our first day of programming.
Then turn inspiration into action and hone your practical skills in our Friday morning workshop series. Led by outstanding professionals from the Core77 network, each one-hour workshop will transform ideas introduced during the conference into strategies for innovative new ways of working. We close out our second day a series of guided tours offering exclusive insight into downtown Los Angeles's most innovative design studios and public projects.
Get more details about the 2016 Core77 conference on design-led co-creation including highlights from this year's speakers, workshops and studio tours at core77.com/conference
Reserve your spot TODAY (Early Bird Pricing Ends July 31)
Stay updated on all things #Core77Con by RSVPing on our Facebook Event page or following our Conference Pinterest board.
The "Out of the bag" concept is a lightweight, mobile storage furniture, reflecting on the topics of temporary living, (social) mobility and basic needs of refugees and other target groups, connected by the temporariness of living in the same place and short periods of tenancy.
Meet TwiCycle: the radical new concept bike that combines the strenuousness of hand-powered cycling with the practicality of riding a see-saw in traffic.
Are you ready to play Bad Bike Design Bingo?
1. Demand
What issue is the TwiCycle aiming to address? The non-issue every seasoned cyclist has joked about and ignored because it's not an issue: lack of upper body workout while riding. Want another efficient way to address that? Pushups. Or schlep a bike bag in each hand once you're off the bike. Or buy a $24.95 set of weights. Or carry gigantic cans of peaches around at all times because that's still less irrational than this design.
2. Ergonomics
Workouts aren't supposed to be comfy per se, but balancing your body weight on the sternum and lung region while pumping your appendages around doesn't sound like a relaxing way to work up a sweat. It sounds totally goddamn uncomfortable. Moving the densest part of your body up, down, back and forth while riding would be a giant ache producer. You'd need a great bike fit (and existing fitness) to avoid overexerting your lower back and neck, and if there are boobs involved I bet all bets are off.
I'm not even going to talk about the chest callouses.
3. Proprietary Parts
Props to TwiCycle for apparently using readily available parts on the front drivetrain, but uh… there's a front drive train. Rotating handlebars are not industry standard, shall we say. And what type of modern road fork would accept a wheel spaced wide enough for gears? This adds up to a lot of adding up.
4. Handling
Riding this thing in traffic looks like a death wish. The effective "stem" length varies dependent on the position of the hands, while the position of the chest-post seems to put your center of weight unusually far forward. To stay stable, riders are likely placing their hands at the bottom of their cycle, putting them weirdly low and wide like a fixie rider's upside down riser bars. (But not fixed in place.) None of these sound like great ingredients for a long sporty ride, and at kindest the handling is probably quite twitchy.
5. Safety
It probably isn't. It puts inconsistent load on your hands (which you still need to steer) while your hips are still in motion. This rests more weight than usual farther inboard than normal, and I'd bet you end up taking pretty gentle curves in order to steer steadily. You also can't reach the shifters unless you take a hand all the way off the (rotating) bars, which is an annoying and unsafe setup left behind in the early '80s. This POV video shows the bars wambling around while turning, and made me break out in a sweat. A hand-assisted AWD bike is a cool engineering problem, or fun freak bike to build for yourself.
6. Cost
See 3, then remember how much people enjoy paying for a bike with a single mass-produced drivetrain. Hint: they don't!
7. Fit
While I appreciate their no-pain-no-gain dedication, the auto-impalement system at the front seems only slightly adjustable for rider height, bike size, riding position or rider proportions. Tsk tsk.
8. Exclusivity
The way they describe this thing you'd think they were selling an ATV, or were the first to invent hand powered locomotion. They aren't.
9. Wild Card
We could have stopped at 3, but these guys filled the entire board. They even nailed the Wild Card slot by putting a sharp chainring inches from your face and calling it efficient innovation, which takes some guts. Well done!
Hand cycles are in no way laughable on their own. Appropriate technology in sports equipment has come a long hard way towards being light and well-designed, but this is… something else entirely. If you want to see what serious hand bikes actually look like check out Bike-On.
I'll give the TwiCycle credit: it is eye-catching. But above all else it aims to shoehorn a minimally demanded "improvement" into an existing system without accounting for industry standards and crucial concerns around safety and comfort. Also if you say the name out loud you sound like a toddler.
The final Bad Bike Design Bingo score:9/9. Nice work!
Would you ride one? Do you have other Bingo contenders?
Many modern desks don't have drawers—and even if they do, some people might prefer to have frequently used items sitting out on the desktop. I've written about desk organizers before, but I keep seeing more that catch my eye.
The One Piece from Yuue comes in three variations, each with different cut-outs to hold different sorts of items. It's nice to see a design that recognizes that end users have varying needs. The holes for pens and pencils aren't all the same size, so items of varying diameters can all be held upright.
The Desk Rail from Pushstart Creative, which launched on Kickstarter, is another one-piece desk organizer. While it can't hold everything the One Piece can— there's no place for paper clips, for example—it's still a flexible solution that can hold a lot, given the foam cushions inside the aluminum rail that both protect the items placed inside and grip them to keep them upright.
Cables are well planned for; there's a cable channel, removable side doors to make it easy to route the cables, and silicon feet that protect the desk and allow cords to pass underneath.
The Kesito desk organizer from Woodendot consists of three diamond-shaped blocks that can be arranged in a row or a hexagon—or, of course, they can be used separately. One holds pens, another holds things like paper clips, and the third holds cards, notes and cell phones.
It's nice to have the flexibility to place the three pieces separately, to accommodate space limitations and different usage models, where placing the pieces separate would be more convenient. However, the Kesito would lose its visual impact if that was done. Also, given how short the pieces are, I know some end users would soon find them buried under piles of paper.
The .Org Deskscape System was created through a collaboration between L&G Studio and Pat Kim Design. It's somewhat similar to the Kesito organizer, but it uses a zig-zag tray to hold pencils and pens (and other small items). That difference will make one system or another more appealing to an end user; they're equally functional. There's also a cork block to serve as a mini bulletin board, which is a nice addition.
The Still Alive desk organizer set from Seletti, designed by Antonio Aricò, has individual storage pieces which have their set places on a tray but can also be removed and moved around.
The set includes a tall pitcher that can be used to hold rulers or scissors, a wooden vase that is divided into three parts for storing items like tacks and paperclips, a brass cup that serves as a pen holder, a wooden pencil box, a porcelain vase, a pyramid-shaped box, and a magnifying glass sphere.
There's no place to stash a cell phone or papers, as with some other organizers. Unstacking that three-part vase might be a bit of a pain. And it's very expensive. But for an end user who can afford it, who doesn't need the missing features, and who is motivated by beautiful things, this could work.
The ISO Desktop Organizer from Field, designed by Atelier Takagi, is made from heavy-gauge cold rolled steel and weighs almost six pounds, so it's a good one for an end user who wants to ensure a pet doesn't knock the organizer off the desk. (There's a thin cork underside.)
It's not going to store things like paper clips, and it's not the best organizer for pens and pencils, but it would be good for storing notebooks and such. And a calculator, for anyone who still uses a calculator.
The Bartek organizer from Muuda provides an interesting combination of open and closed storage. With the drawers, the end user doesn't need to worry about a container of paper clips or pushpins getting knocked over and creating a mess. The drawers are also good for anything the end user would prefer not to have on open display.
The Space Cube provides paper trays as well as storage for pens, sticky notes and such. There are holes in the back to allow cords to pass through. My experience with this type of paper tray is that papers are often forgotten because they are hard to see. But I've seen these trays work well for storing unused paper (in different colors, for example) rather than reference papers or papers requiring action.
In contrast to all these desk organizers with their various compartments, there's the hammock desk organizer from Treehouse Oasis. Some end users will appreciate the simplicity of just tossing everything into the hammock, especially if they don't have any tiny things that will get buried at the bottom.
The problem with getting vehicles across mud is that the more vehicles that drive through it, the muddier it gets. This presents a problem to both military bodies and disaster-relief organizations that seek to get large groups of supply-laden vehicles through; while the first few vehicles can manage it, the churn created by each passing vehicle makes it worse for the one behind.
To solve this, Wales-based manufacturer Faun Trackway created their eponymous product, a series of aluminum extrusions that are linked together to form a loose-ground-spanning roadway. Bound together in this manner, the relatively thin extrusions can together support vehicles of up to 70 metric tons in weight, helping them traverse "sand, snow, mud, swamp and ice."
Even cooler is the way it's deployed. Rolled up into 50-meter lengths, the Trackway is stored on a purpose-built truck, transported to the problem area, then rolled out like the proverbial red carpet.
Here's what it looks like in action:
And here's what it looks like in the actual field, in a variety of weather conditions. Note that even when partially submerged, the Trackway still provides enough purchase for vehicles to traverse smoothly:
While originally developed for the UK's Ministry of Defence, the Faun Trackway is now used by 30 militaries across the globe, as well as by the mining industries and "a variety of humanitarian and disaster relief operations, where rapid access to cut-off areas is essential." It is indeed rapid: The 50-meter length can reportedly be unspooled in as little as six minutes. Not a bad use for what are essentially just a bunch of aluminum extrusions.
Quercus Rubra
Red Oak, like most of the North American Oaks, is very hearty and grows quite large, which results in high availability and affordable pricing. Red Oak is a strong species that bends rather well due to its open grain structure, but it can dull cutting edges rapidly, so sharp tools are a necessity to prevent splintering.
Because Red Oak has such a large growth range, inconsistencies do arise among the trees. At J. Gibson McIlvain, we do our best to source our Red Oak lumber from Northern climes where the growth is slower, thereby producing a deeper color and a tighter growth ring. This makes for a stronger tree altogether and significantly reduces splintering.
Sapwood should be avoided in Red Oak, but since sapwood is often overlooked during grading, careful inspection is necessary to prevent wastage of your product. Unlike some lumber companies, we at McIlvain will downgrade Red Oak when sapwood is present. Frequently, this wood will not even be sold unless it can meet the necessary specifications after the sapwood has been trimmed away.
It should be noted that due to its high level of tannins, Red Oak will corrode steel fasteners; this can then cause staining of the wood over time. This same staining can occur when water-based glues and steel clamps are used, so care should be taken during assembly to avoid these products.
Because of open pores and grain, Red Oak will finish well, but a uniform surface can sometimes be hard to obtain without a pore filler. Red Oak wood will stain nicely, however, because it has so many pores to capture and hold pigment.
With its availability and low cost, Red Oak lumber is used in a wide range of applications. Red Oak is commonly used by retail stores for shelves, moulding, and merchandising fixtures, and it is of course used in furniture design, cabinetry and millwork.
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This continuation of the Wood Species series is written by Shannon Rogers, a/k/a The Renaissance Woodworker and founder of The Hand Tool School. It has been provided courtesy of the J. Gibson McIlvain Lumber Company, where Rogers works as Director of Marketing.
While videogames often feature castles, this one was actually developed by people working inside of one. Last week Örebro Castle, a medieval island fortification in Sweden, hosted Castle Game Jam 2016, "a rapid result driven game development event where teams create prototypes over the course of 1 week in a big castle." Stockholm-based Landfall Games was in attendance, and here's what developers Andreas Jörgensen, David Norberg and Karl Flodin came up with:
Well, that escalated quickly.
They're calling it T.A.B.S., for Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, a title that belies some of the game's more peculiar capabilities. In the following battle, for instance, we see that one of the weapons appears to be a zombie peasant that excretes battle chickens:
Fine, so it's not exactly Game of Thrones, but it looks diverting enough.
You can sign up for the alpha testing here.
K’NEX is looking for a Design Associate to join the Product Development team. The Design Associate imagines and creates product candidates for various assigned product lines. For some this is a dream job. So let’s get this straight; playing with toys all day isn’t just fun and games. It requires some serious tinkering and problem solving, especially to make the toys fun, safe, and (shhhh!) educational.
View the full design job here
