The Sea Me collection is an attractive attempt to reconcile the bounty and ecological vulnerability of the ocean. Designer Nienke Hoogvliet has researched the design applications of recycled and naturally produced sea materials for over two years, and her findings are both surprising and attractive. 

She has found a method for processing seaweed into a yarn soft and inviting enough for use in the modern home. Her original Sea Me rug paired this yarn with reclaimed fishing net (one of the most common sources of plastic sea pollution), in a simple but evocative design. 

With support from the Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie she continued this research to investigate its sustainability in larger production. She also widened the scope, aiming to find complimentary materials and production methods that, when employed together, yield as close to zero waste product as possible. With this in mind she expanded her work to include seaweed dyes, paint, leather made from fish byproduct, and bioplastic. 

Using her findings, Hoogvliet designed the Sea Me Collection: a clean chair and table set. The seat is seaweed textile colored with a seaweed dye. The byproduct of that process is used to make the paint for the table, and the table's waste was used to make bio-plastic bowls. 

The collection illustrates that while naturally derived products are often limited when compared with more synthesized options, they can still be strong and beautiful contenders. The Sea Me dyes, textiles and plastics have proved to be vivid, light fast, flexible and strong. 

Hoogvliet is interested in seaweed both for its wide range of material uses and its restorative role in diverse ecosystems. Seaweeds filter out pollutants like phosphates, and convert C02 so readily that they're one of the globe's key sources of oxygen. They could also be farmed without taking up arable land and water resources onshore.

Her research and production is documented in the book Seaweed Research, out now in Dutch and available in English by the end of the year. The book and Hoogvliet's sustainable textiles are available on her webstore. 

After thousands of years spent manipulating wood, humans are still inventing new and exciting ways of working with the versatile material. Here are two recently discovered techniques that bring new meaning to the process of woodworking:

Ori Ravgad's 'Paipu Technique'

Tel Aviv based Product designer, Ori Ravgad, has created a new technique to construct wooden veneer objects. The 'Paipu Technique,' inspired by the ancient Japanese methodology of rolling sushi, opens the doors to a new dimension of casting and is able to be practiced on a diverse scale of objects. The process involves taking a single sheet of hardwood veneer, drizzling it with adhesive and carefully rolling it into a tube. The tube is then placed into a bespoke mold tool to set overnight.

Even though the 'Paipu Technique' was inspired by the art of Sushi making, the final outcome is more reminiscent of parts produced by extrusion. When a sheet of veneer is rolled, the original structure of the tree is reassembled into a form that better suits the needs of a specific project. The 'Paipu Technique' also takes advantage of Rotary Veneer Peeling, which is incredibly efficient in it's use of timber.

Charlène Guillaume's 'Bottle It' Project

After playing around with disposable PET water bottles otherwise destined for landfill, Charlène Guillaume stumbled upon their ability to shrink on contact when exposed to high temperatures. Heat-shrinking plastics are nothing new, but when applied to the task of joining wood, these bottles become something very special.

Unfortunatley, due to its early stage of development, the resulting pieces of furniture end up looking like something Bear Grylls might lash-up in a hurry on an episode of Man vs. Wild:

Despite its aesthetic, this method wonderfully exploits the engineering properties of high-performance Polyester. PET exhibits high tensile strength, high dimensional stability and is resistant to harsh chemicals. This new joinery application makes appropriate use of an often wasted resource. From a sustainability standpoint, Charlène's process brings up an interesting question - is the "Bottle It" Project up-cycling or down-cycling materials?

This post was originally published at Think Refine.

Design is about crafting solutions to problems, whatever they may be. It's about more than the aesthetic of homewares and futuristic cars. Design doesn't happen in a bubble, it happens as a response to the events around us. The goal of is always improvement, to create a better future in whatever way we can. Countless design challenges, ranging from the highly influential Buckminster Fuller Challenge to the student-organized Better World by Design Conference ask designers to consider a design-led, interdisciplinary approach to creating change in the world.

At this year's annual Core77 Designing Here/Now conference our theme explores how design-led co-creation will lead interdisciplinary teams to build successful, game-changing products of our near future. 

In a roundtable discussion we'll engage with strategies around designing for the refugee crisis. Three designers will share recent projects that have raised awareness and offered solutions for the growing populations of migrant people displaced by war, regional instability and environmental catastrophe.  The panel will feature Architects for Society founder Amro Sallam, interaction designer and current Orbital designer-in-residence Ekene Ijeoma and designer, Co-Founder and Director of Shared_Studios John Farrace. We take a look at their work below:

Amro Sallam: Architects for Society 

With a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Architecture from Southern California Institute of Architecture, Sallam has executed a wide variety of projects. In addition to working with prestigious architecture firms Herzog DeMeuron, Switzerland and SOM, Chicago, he is passionate about serving local communities. His community service work ranges from education, youth and community centers across America, to artwork as a vehicle for educating the public about the unharnessed potential of communities living in slum developments and informal settlements.

After close to twenty years of practicing architecture, Amro Sallam's passion for engaging the disadvantaged lead him to found Architects for Society in 2015. Composed of practicing architects from all over the world, the organization seeks to enhance the built environment of underserved communities through the multi-disciplinary collaboration of designers, citizens and policy-makers. The organization's most recent project, Hex House, was a finalist for the 2016 What Design Can Do Challenge.

A configuration of Hex Houses encase gardens and grow community.

At this year's What Design Can Do conference, the organizers challenged designers to address this year's theme of: What Design Can Do for Refugees. An issue too large for individuals, or even an entire government institution, to address, the challenge calls for collaboration and co-creation in order to design enduring solutions that will help refugees and cities positively adapt to change.

The mission of Hex House is to not only provide a cost effective shelter for refugees, but also a dignified alternative home. Shipped in pieces and assembled by users, the structures are modular and can be joined to enhance thermal performance. With a galvanized steel tube base and insulated metal wall panels, the floor and roof surfaces allow room for customization. The solar panels and rainwater harvesting structural elements ensure that the modules provide occupants with as many resources as possible.

Ekene Ijeoma: Studio Ijeoma

An accomplished interaction and information designer, Ekene Ijeoma uses the combination of visual art and technology to design educational solutions for social issues. With a resume that's surprisingly long for someone who is just over thirty, Ijeoma has worked with Google Creative Lab, IBM, Bloomberg, Wolff Olins and Pentagram, been a lecturer at The New School and New York University, a critic at Yale and School of Visual Arts, a visiting artist at Virginia Commonwealth University and School for Poetic Computation and an artist-in-residence at Fabrica and Ace Hotel. His work humanizes data in a way that feels poetic yet pragmatic. Most recently Ijeoma, who currently works as a designer-in-residence for Orbital, was featured in Good Magazine 'Good 100' 2016 for "tackling pressing global issues." So, what does Ekene Ijeoma actually make?

While he does commercial work, Ijeoma is known for his socially conscious and thought provoking data visualization and interactive platforms. [Editor's Note: Read about Ijeoma's most recent app, Look Up, which was released earlier this week.] Using big data to tell cohesive stories, The Refugee Project, created in collaboration with social impact design agency Hyperakt, provides those of us who feel numb to the numbers, thrown around by mass media, a way to grasp the human reality of the refugee crisis.

As the page loads and years climb, headlines of displacement give context to the circles representative of refugees.

As the years climb from 1975 to 2015, new circles pop up and pulsate, growing as time goes on. The map illuminates patterns of emigration and the context of displacement. Stories of historic turmoil accompany the visual data, allowing the number 35 million to feel a bit more personal. The map gives visual representation to an issue that, for some, feels so intangible. The Refugee Project was featured in MoMA's Design and Violence exhibition, the Design Museum (London) Designs of the Year 2015 exhibition, the Mapmaker Manifesto installation at the 2014 Istanbul Design Biennial and earned a Gold Medal for Interactive at the 2014 Information is Beautiful Awards and a Silver Medal at the prestigious Malofiej 22 Infographic Awards.

In addition to the international refugee crisis, Ijeoma's work shines a light on social injustices and problems that for some strike closer to home. In 2015 he created Wage Islands for The Storefront for Art and Architecture. Inspired by the fast food workers' fight to raise minimum wage from $8.75 to $15.00 per hour, the project is an interactive, visual display of income and consequent housing inequalities in New York City. Over 500 pieces of acrylic panels compose a topographical map that, when submerged in blue water on a powered platform, display how a higher minimum wage translates to geographic accessibility.

John Farrace: Shared_Studios 

Having earned a Bachelor of Architecture from University of Southern California in 2012 and a Master of Architecture from Yale in 2014, John Farrace's work examines physical boundaries through the intersections of media and architecture. After graduating from Yale, Farrace co-founded Shared_Studios, a design collective whose work is a multidisciplinary approach to combining art and technology.

Standing in the "wormhole," face to face with those across the globe is an otherworldly encounter.

Sixth graders in New Haven, Connecticut visit the Portal to connect with Tehran.

Currently the collective has work on view at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City as part of the Refugee exhibit, which calls for international solidarity in response to an epidemic of human displacement. The work, Portals is part of a global network of interconnected gold shipping containers. Outfitted with immersive audio and video technology, the piece allows visitors to communicate with refugees in camps across the world. Since its launch in 2014, Portals have connected over 13,000 people worldwide in conversation and hosted global events including concerts, public dialogues and classes. The collective "Envisions wormholes throughout the world, carved by an internet you can walk through." New York visitors have a chance to walk through the internet and through the wormhole until September 8, don't miss out.  

Learn more about design for refugees at this September's Core77 Conference in Los Angeles. Buy your ticket before July 31st for Early Bird pricing!

Containing a built-in muddler that squishes fruits and vegetables to release flavor, Splash Infuser is a water and cocktail infuser that goes the extra mile. Splash Infuser has a straightforward process and is not attached to a water bottle, making it multifunctional and practical.

If you'll be in Tokyo before the end of summer, do us all a favor and visit the new Ghibli Expo exhibit while you still can.

This exhibit is currently running at Roppongi Hills Tokyo City View, and it documents the labor and creativity behind some of the world's most beloved animated films. It features never before seen artwork, production materials, advertising, poster art and manuscripts from the last three decades. You can even snack on foods modeled after meals in the movies at the connected cafe.

But–most importantly–a visit also gets you a chance to see this unbelievably cool magic air boat in person. The beautifully styled and surprisingly articulated airship was made to commemorate the 30th birthday of the Ghibli pioneer film Castle In The Sky, and it looks awesome.

The ship is around 2.5 metres high and 6 metres long. It paddles like the "real" thing while floating up and down, and is capped with a dense crowd of delicate propellers. It's surrounded by an armada of other inventive flying machines above a creative Miazaki cityscape. The view from the 52nd floor viewing "sky gallery" can't hurt.

There's also an adult scale Catbus to climb in, and loads of cool material from Nausica through the newest release, The Red Turtle. But if you ask me, the skyboat is enough reason to go.

Via

The Expo runs through September 11, 2016. More info here.

Freehanding straight lines is hard, and those of you that are good at it have put in countless hours of practice. For nature, however, straight lines can be easy. The tendency of liquid to obey gravity and provide a flat surface, for instance, allowed us to create levels.

Brazilian artist Theo Pinto is exploiting liquid and gravity to create lines that, while not perfectly straight, would be supremely difficult to mimic freehand. Pinto took a Mini Cooper, set it completely vertical (hopefully after draining the fluids), then gave it a rather dramatic pinstriping job.

The overall effect is pretty darn cool.

I'm also digging that the surface he used to catch the drips unwittingly creates a second work of art.

Here's a quick video showing the process:

That's not automotive paint, by the way; as part of a marketing effort for the SinfulColors brand, Pinto used 120 gallons of their nail polish!

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.

Say It with Bubbles

After reading about this Phnom Penh–based company that makes customizable clouds from soap and helium, I'm seriously considering an investment in a Khmer Cloud Making Machine. Because, as their website says, "who does not love bubbles?"

—Rebecca Veit, columnist, Designing Women

We're Solving All the Wrong Problems

A solid op-ed by Allison Arieff forewarning the potential dangers of a perfectly automated world where designers design for the most minute of problems, also posing the very fair question that "when everything is characterized as 'world-changing', is anything?"

—Allison Fonder, community manager

How to Make a Hologram With Your Phone and A CD Case

Old and new materials combine to bring you this DIY hologram illusion. I have yet to try this, but I'm hoping it can make my Game of Thrones hologram battle dreams come true.

—Emily Engle, editorial assistant

Meet the Only Library in the World That Operates in Two Countries at Once

Books are known for their ability to transport readers to other, mysterious and imaginary lands. In the case of the Haskell Library, which straddles the U.S. state of Vermont and the Canadian province of Quebec, books are responsible for transporting readers between the two countries—despite ever-increasing border control tensions.

—Molly Millette, editorial intern

Lighting the Way to the Future

The advent of LED's signals the first consumer product of the 21st century to challenge planned obsolescence. This story examines the rise of the lighting cartel, the current business of lighting and how public policy might shape the way we design consumer products in the near future.

—LinYee Yuan, managing editor

Old-School Joinery Shop Stool

Jesse de Geest, a/k/a the Samurai Carpenter is back in fighting form, finally bringing us a new furniture build! This week he knocks out a beautiful shop stool created with zero fasteners, just traditional joinery:

Steel & Wood Bench

This week Jimmy DiResta bangs out a sturdy bench that will survive the ravages of its location: The sidewalk directly outside of his Lower East Side workshop. At first I couldn't figure out why he was attaching the eyelet, then realized this was going to be an outdoor NYC piece of furniture.

Matthias Gets Loaded

No building going on in this one, but Matthias Wandel's got a new toy: A front-end loader! Here we see him use it to uproot an old swing set on his country property:

How to Make Clamps for 40 Cents

Izzy Swan is back with more money-saving shop tips. This week he shows you how to knock out a quick, cheap set of spring clamps, then demonstrates how you can rig them up with rubber bands to turn them into edge clamps.

Interesting Sharpening System

I thought I'd seen every sharpening jig, rig and system out there, from sandpaper-and-glass to the Tormek, but I'd never seen the system Izzy demonstrates this week. At its center (literally): Cardboard!

Microwave / Recycling Bin / Shredder / Mail Tray Cabinet - Parts 2 and 3

Frank Howarth continues building his multipurpose off-kitchen cabinet. Here in Part 2, he works up the frame and drawers to hold a recycling bin and paper shredder:

Seeing mid-project errors is always edifying, because you see how folks can improvise their way out of a mistake. Here Howarth makes a miscalculation with how the microwave will fit in, then comes up with a workable solution. I also like his explanation of the visual language of the handholds at the end:

First Time Welding - Plywood Rack for Truck Bed

For those who've never done it before, welding can be intimidating to dive into, particularly for DIY'ers outside of a classroom environment. Here April Wilkerson takes the plunge, walking you through everything from the unboxing to her first, highly practical project:

Folding Shop Stool

A fun, quick one: Bob Clagett comes up with a design for a folding shop stool, then whips it up using piano hinges and plywood.

DIY Bluetooth Speaker

Linn from Darbin Orvar creates a DIY bluetooth speaker, building the cabinet out of walnut and cherry and wiring up the components herself:

Laura's Turbo Raft

This one starts off in the shop but ends up in a lake. Laura Kampf builds a raft, then attempts to convert a weed-whacker into a DIY propulsion system:

Bent Wood and Concrete Lamp

Pokémon-Go-playing Steve Ramsey shows you how to prepare and bend oak strips using pipe clamps. He then whips up a concrete base and constructs this Brutalist-style lamp:

Bose is looking for a Visionary Industrial Designer to help us create world-class customer experiences for our consumer products division. At Bose, we’ve spent 50 years finding new ways to bring quality audio products to people—in their homes, in automobiles, in airplanes, and just about anywhere else.

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.

Monday

Join La Triennale di Milano and The Milano Design Film Festival for a A Talk with Alejandro Aravena. The Pritzker Architecture Prize winning architect will discuss how architecture can improve people's lives.

Milan, Italy. July 18, 2016 at 6:00 PM.

Tuesday

Manifesto Series: In Our Time – The Sharing Movement (Part II), is the second event in a two-part series presented by Storefront for Art and Architecture and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Participants will discuss the concept of 'the sharing movement,' a contemporary and ubiquitous movement that is increasingly influencing the exchange of goods, data, images, services and spaces of residence/work.

New York, NY. Tuesday, Part II: July 19, 2016 from 6:30 – 9 pm.

Wednesday

You don't want to miss MoCA Detroit's interactive exhibit, Methexis, a series of design studies, maps, and abstract design codes that reimagine processes of demolition and preservation, specifically focusing on the tens of thousands of vacant houses in Detroit. This extensive collection of studies focuses on demolition alternatives for publicly owned vacant structures.

Detroit, MI. On view through August 28, 2016.

Thursday

Japanese furniture company, Hida Furniture, is holding a design competition for wooden products. The goal of this competition is to create a wooden product that looks toward the future, while drawing on tradition. The only catch? Submitted products must be made with domestic lumber. 

Hida-Takayama, Japan. Competition open through August 22, 2016.

Friday

Over the last few years, the reaction GIF has emerged as a form for communicating with short moving images in response to, and often in lieu of, text in online forums and comment threads. While many reaction GIFs are created, deployed, and rarely seen again, some have entered a common lexicon after being regularly reposted in online communities. Explore the topic of here now, gone later communication further at The Reaction GIF: Moving Image as Gestureat the Museum of the Moving Image.

Astoria, NY. On view through July 31, 2016.

Saturday/Sunday

The Art & Design Atomium Museum's  Eames and Hollywood reveals one of the lesser-known hats worn by the designer couple, Ray and Charles Eames: photographers. Armed with a camera, the duo immortalized life behind the scenes of Billy Wilder's Hollywood film sets.

Brussels, Belgium. On view through September 4, 2016.

Got ideas? We want YOU!

Share strategies around leading interdisciplinary teams to success at this September's Core77 Conference Designing Here/Now and win a complimentary pass to this year's festivities. We're looking for dynamic workshop presentations that share practical knowledge around this year's theme of design-led co-creation. 

Send us an email conference@core77.com with your workshop title, 2-3 sentence overview and any technical needs for a 1-hour workshop to take place on Friday, September 30th.

The Core77 Conference is 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.

Learn more about design-led co-creation at this September's Core77 Conference in Los Angeles. Buy your ticket before July 31st for Early Bird pricing!

American divisiveness has reached an all-time high. There is much our bifurcated nation cannot agree upon, and here is further proof that we will, like bar brawlers scrabbling for napkin-holders to use as bludgeons, seize upon anything we can use to attack the other "side."

On Friday Donald Trump's presidential campaign sent out an e-mail announcing his running mate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence. The e-mail was accompanied with the duo's new logo, in startlingly low resolution:

While not a terrific piece of graphic design, absent any politics it's serviceable enough. The "T" and "P" are interlocked, recalling a collegiate logo. The red stripes and negative white space serve to fill out an iconized version of the American flag. But criticism of a puerile, sexually suggestive (and unfair, we believe, see below) nature begin almost immediately.

This swiftly evolved into a meme (including a crass animated GIF revealing that yes, America is still titillated by sex. "Look, the T is fucking the P!" Giggles and high-fives all around). Media outlets opposed to Trump's campaign immediately ran with the story, and web denizens—perhaps seeking to distract themselves from a litany of horrifically violent recent news events—eagerly piled on. Such a furor, or perceived furor, was created on social and news media that the Trump campaign swiftly pulled the logo.

The reason we say the criticism was unfair is because even if you don't like a person, we find it absurd to insist that you then don't like that person's car, necktie or trappings, as if their persona—however odious you may find it—ought be projected onto their aesthetic choices. Interlocking letters are not uncommon in logo work…

…and to use words to twist them into something to create offense, with gleeful pseudo-Freudian insights, is both childish and churlish.

Legitimate tools of political protest are manifold. Technology has given all of us more power to broadcast our voices than ever. But rather than use that power to engage in substantive discussions, or even a literal dialogue—which would involve two sides actually listening to one another—we talk past each other, belittle the other side and attack a logo.

The reason why is obvious. You reach for the napkin holder to bash across your opponent's face because negotiations have failed and now you're both up out of your seats. I guess if you miss your shot or his skull turns out to be thicker than you'd thought, you'd better hope you can grab the barstool next.

Material choice is a critical decision for every product, an essential phase of the design process defined by material swatches and samples, perhaps a few prototypes, all to ensure that the final product will convey the perfect look and feel.

But for Qualities of Material, the latest collection to come out of New York-based design studio Fort Standard, materials aren't merely a decision—they're the crux of the concept.

"We were trying to hyperfocus on the things that we were most excited about in terms of our collaboration and figuring out the driving force behind our designs," says Gregory Buntain, co-founder of Fort Standard. Taking a year off from the perpetuating cycle of endless design weeks, Buntain and his co-founder Ian Collings decided to spend that time instead collecting their thoughts and discussing where they wanted the New York-based studio to go.

"That conversation shifted into what would become Qualities of Material, where we were just able to focus on some of the materials and processes that were really exciting to us," Buntain says.

The collection returns to the experimental side of Fort Standard's process, exploring natural materials beyond conventional limits and applications. Focusing primarily on wood, stone and leather, the duo utilized specific material characteristics and processes to create structural designs in the context of furniture.

"We were less interested in building a large furniture company and scaling our business in that way," Collings says. "We would rather spend more of our time designing and creating more specialized, unique objects, but still within the context of functional furniture."

"It's definitely an oversimplification to say it is pushing the limitations of materials," Buntain says. "I think on a more interesting note, it's about what happens when you explore materials and start thinking about what they're capable of in a practical sense and realizing that there's opportunities for those materials to be pushed outside of a conventional application."

For Buntain and Collings, that meant looking at stone outside the context of architectural facades, or questioning how leather could be used as something more than cushioned upholstery. "That's really what the genesis of the project was," Collings says. "To push our understanding of materials to the point where we could find new opportunities and new ways of working with them."

One of the pieces in the collection is the Stacked Leather Chair, which is a far cry from your standard leather recliner. For this piece, the duo stacked and rolled layers of vegetable tanned leather to create the structural components of the chair. "We are all familiar with armchairs and we are all familiar with leather, but you're not familiar with leather being structural," Collings says. "We worked with it until we could create solid panels and solid tubes that we could then cut up to create functional, structural, leather components which would then be assembled to create our stacked leather chair."

The Relief Stone Cabinet is another example of that approach to material exploration—featuring a triangular relief pattern milled into the exterior panels, which serves the function of removing excess weight, while the remaining ribs retain the material's strength. "The milled surface might appear to be a stylistic treatment, but the reality is it was a very process-driven decision we made around how to remove a lot of material while still retaining structural integrity," Buntain says. Soapstone was also chosen for its soft, yet dense properties. "And the reason that those patterns have a triangular format to them relates to the machine that we were using to cut them. It ended up being the fastest, most economical way to remove a large majority of material while retaining a structural ridge without having to lift up the tool a hundred times."

The cabinet is made up of three stackable units, sitting atop a hard maple base. "Even if you are familiar with cabinets, it's rare that you see a stone cabinet out there," Collings says. "So it's not only what we're doing with materials that is interesting, it's also the fact that we're working outside the familiar context of standard furniture design typologies that you often see expressed in certain materials."

Buntain and Collings view their latest collection of pieces as a divergence from their standard furniture lines, and have debuted them as such. Qualities of Material was shown for the first time at Collective Design Fair, the high-end addition to New York Design Week featuring an international roster of established and emerging galleries. There, collectors, gallerists and other spectators could check out the aforementioned pieces, with pricetags of $9,600 and $52,000, respectively.

The Fort Standard founders view the collection as the manifestation and culmination of their conversations over the past five years. "The materials in this collection are very much our material palette," Buntain says. "There's nothing new about us working with these materials, it's really about taking it to the next level while still working with these inherently beautiful, natural materials that we enjoy working with so much."

At Layer, we examine how the form, format and materiality of traditional product typologies can be re-imagined to enhance their everyday performance. The Cradle collection is a unique blend of two typologies of seating – a net structured hammock and a conventional upholstered lounge chair. The range utilizes a new high performance three-dimensional stretch textile developed by Layer in close collaboration with an Austrian textile factory. The knitted textile has high strength but low density, delivering the necessary ergonomic support for the body using a fraction of the material of a traditional mesh.

What was the biggest surprise when you started your first industrial design job? For me, coming out of three years getting my hands dirty in the studio at school, it was the work environments. During multiple internships and my first three ID jobs, I learned that ID work took place in dull offices with music chosen by those with seniority—and you never needed to wash your hands.

Over on the Core77 Discussion Boards, a similar discovery has come as a surprise to new industrial designer TSE2. S/he writes:

I got an internship at a famous design firm for this summer [and] I am quite disheartened from what I've seen. All the designers at this firm just sit at desks all day and plug stuff into Rhino and work from 9am to 7pm. I've asked around and they say it's basically about 90% of what they do... 5% is working on models occasionally, and the other 5% is traveling to do some research.

Is this normal? I never could see myself doing a job sitting in a cubicle working on Rhino all day for ten hours a day. I want to ask you guys who have been in the industry long enough to know, is Industrial Design a desk job? Does it vary from firm to firm? Industry to industry?

Here are some excerpts of the excellent answers to the question "Is Industrial Design a Desk Job?" provided by our board participants:

For Now, For You, Yes

Holtag, Singapore: "I'd say that for at least 75% of us out there, it's desk job. That just comes with the manufacturing process. You'll be able to get away more from your desk as you rise in the organization. And there are positions which are much more hands-on. But if you're thinking of well known studios, you'll have to accept that most of the work is done at a desk."

Why Your Hands Will Stay Clean

Jaded, Detroit: "[The larger places I've worked] have professional modelmakers, so other than quick mockups to study form, you will almost never spend weeks working on a final model like you do in school. The reality is, as a designer you are more valuable to a corporation designing sketching/modeling, not sanding foam."

ID and Field Research Require Different People

Iab: "Field work is done by those who have the right personality for it. I have found rarely that an IDer is good at building the relationships for field research. I don't want them in front of the customer."

To Get Away From the Desk, You Need a Valid Reason

Iab: "So if research is out, other than the occasional vendor visit, what do you propose doing in the field?"

Depends—Are You at a Design Factory, Studio or Strategy Consultancy?

Bepster, Switzerland: "While I was at consultancies, I actually spent more time at the desk [than] I do now in-house. Simply because I am in more meetings concerning the future and strategy of the company, syncing up with brand management, portfolio and project management."

Michael DiTullo, Southern California: "Is it a 'design factory' with people just pumping out final designs all day or a 'design studio' which is more of what Bcpid described [see 'Strategies...' below]. Other places are more research and strategy oriented where the final deliverable is always just a powerpoint of recommendations.

"Research the place you want to work, ask questions. I have interviewed at several 'design factories' and I avoided them like the plague. Likewise I've always had an allergic reaction to the design strategy houses (I want to make stuff). Some people like that though, so to each their own. The studio model has always fit me well."

Are We Talking Desk, or Cubicle?

Bepster, Switzerland: "The desk is certainly your your home-base and cockpit from where you carry out your tasks…. What concerned me about your experiences wasn't that designers are more desk oriented, but that you work in a cubicle. That sounds indeed terrible.

"There are desks and then there are desks. While I spend a lot of time at my desk, I am surrounded by models, prototypes and sketches in an open studio space. So just doing a 360 on my chair, I can see what designers, engineers and managers are doing."

Getting Away From the Desk Can Get You Excited to Return to It

Jaded, Detroit: "Today…I headed out for a few hours of research on some packaging I'm designing. I'm…more of a consumer product guy, and don't typically do much packaging so I wanted to get some good background. Google is no substitute. I opened and closed boxes, felt how certain hinges, and fasteners felt, etc... I've done this before on projects, but I find that every time I go out I get something different out of it.

"I saw some really beautiful things mixed in with a lot of badly designed pieces. Now I am so fired up to 'sit at my desk' and sketch a ton of ideas!"

Rsuzuki, Denver: "Most of my work is at a desk. However, I do find a lot of value in taking time away from my desk when brainstorming ideas. The desk can become a perfect secluded hermit hole void of human interaction and endless Google searches inhibiting true progress; where stepping away and talking to coworkers or making observational research may speed up the process."

Strategies for Getting Away From the Desk

Ralph Zoontjens, the Netherlands: "Of course, CAD work is a lot of sitting at a desk and those jobs can be tedious so you have to have some commitment and that does mean days with 10 hours of almost continuous CAD work. When possible, I recommend to work somewhere different than your desk. Having a separate desk for sketching/making is already a great step. Getting a foam cutter to rapidly work in 3D is another step you can easily make. Do a before-lunch walk or run, or meet some friends/colleagues for coffee. The field of embodied interaction has developed some approaches that let designers work more with their full bodies rather than sitting at a desk, also user research in the field is a great way to enrich your work. It depends a lot on the firm you work in how much time you will spend at a desk so it's good to inquire."

Bcpid: "Most of what I do isn't CAD, even if a lot does occur at a desk. My work isn't monotonous at all most of the time. I do research onsites, lots of ideation sessions with the team to work through the product's problems, meet with clients and vendors, write reports, use products to understand and speak to ergo issues, sketch, make mockups, build CAD, work on GUIs sometimes, work with engineers on configurations, it varies quite a bit and really depends on what the project's goals are - often the project goal isn't even about delivering a finished product design….

"I've always worked in smaller groups and found I like the constant mixing up of functions and project types - maybe that's what the OP needs also?"

Slippyfish: "[I] was seeing a physical therapist to help recover from some injuries [and they] suggested getting up, walking around more often, to simply get flexibility and mobility. The odd part was that once I followed the PT's guidance, my overall 'productivity' actually increased - I was talking to and engaging with other people, seeing what was going on in the model shop, having chance encounters by the water coolers, etc."

There's Variety in Phases

Jaded, Detroit: "I would say 80-90% of the day is working at a desk. Mine is a mix of 3D, and sketching. I leave the office as much as possible at the start of a project to go and look/touch things that will help inspire or inform me on the project."

Michael DiTullo, Southern California: "Everywhere I've worked [which has been design studios] there has tended to be phases of things, stretches of time you would be in CAD, stretches of time you would be brainstorming and sketching as a team, stretches of time in the field doing research with consumers, retailers, and testing competitor product. I like to have enough time to get in the flow of something, where you are not shifting gears every day, but there is enough variety to make interesting."

Standing vs. Sitting

Slippyfish: "I and my team now have standing desks (except for the intern). They are height-adjustable with a hand crank. Most of the team tends to spend a week or two with them up, and then crank it down, and stay there for a couple weeks. I've found if I need to pump some intense CAD that sitting tends to work better for that kind of concentration. Standing desks encourage walking around - no surprise there. But especially for the more senior people on the team, I think they need to realize that the body language and persona conveyed by sitting all day at your desk with your headphones on - "being productive" - is going to be a hindrance in getting where they want or need to go with their career, unless their career goal is CAD modeling/rendering superstar, full stop."

Ralph Zoontjens, the Netherlands: "For me as an independent designer with mostly foreign clients, it has become quite too much a desk job.
I do travel to clients but Skype with screen sharing is a good solution to work remotely as well. So I'm interested in adding a small standing desk to my studio, I believe it will increase productivity and well, general household happiness levels."

Architecture's Got the Same Problem

Ross McCoy, Connecticut: "Seems like the worlds of architecture and ID are about the same on a day to day basis. 90% drafting/modeling/working out details. 10% field work. Not sure if this is a good realization or a bad one. Definitely something to think about while debating career choices."

__________

What's your opinion? Does your ID job feel like you work at Donald Deskey Associates? Do you find yourself spending more time in the bathroom just to get away from that horizontal slab? Got any other clever strategies for sneaking away? Let us know in the comments, or head on over to the discussion boards to sound off.

The 2016 Core77 Conference, isn't just a place for engaging with thought leaders and other design professionals—it also gives you a chance to get an insider's tour of some of their awesome workspaces! How so, you ask? In addition to our Thursday symposium, we're adding a second day of programming for the Core77 Conference with a full Friday of immersive workshops and studio tours around downtown Los Angeles!

In honor of our upcoming conference, we want to know from Core77 readers: 

What studio features make you excited to come to work everyday? 

The winner of the "Share My Space" competition wins a pair of tickets to our Designing Here/Now Conference this September in LA!

Transforming your creative workspace into a truly productive environment requires a combination of different factors—furnishings, office rituals, stocked kitchen pantry, desk organizers, office pets. Maybe it's about having furniture that's truly adaptable for any potential work situation. Maybe it's a ritual you and your co-workers regularly do to stay motivated (in-house yoga? Regular in-office potlucks?).

ENTER NOW

Post your picture on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtags #c77spaces #core77con and a short description explaining what makes your design studio or workspace so awesome and in September, you could find yourself among like-minded individuals checking out our amazing roster of speakers!

We'll be picking weekly semi-finalists so enter early to avoid the crush of competition. Enter the contest up to once a week and you have until Friday, August 5th at 11:59 PM EST to share final snaps of your beautiful work digs.

See full Terms and Conditions here

Join us for the full enchilada—symposium, workshops and studio tours—at this September's Core77 Conference in Los Angeles. Buy your ticket before July 31st for Early Bird pricing!

Vintage furniture is hot these days, primarily for their aesthetic value rather than their function. And if there's a single piece of vintage seating furniture that doesn't get enough love, it's industrial stools. It's no secret why: This is an object associated with work, actual physical labor, which has no place in today's world of cushy couches and ergonomic office chairs.

And yet the industrial stool made some of the earliest forays into ergonomics. First off their overall purpose was to support the asses of people working at machines in factories. Even the most callous taskmaster of a factory manager understood that he could squeeze more productivity out of workers if they weren't on their feet all day long. Secondly, whether a seamstress sitting at a sewing machine or a grinder sitting at the wheel, they needed to be at the optimal height to most efficiently ply their trade. And as workers inconveniently came in different sizes, a measure of ergonomics needed to be developed.

In an era antedating gas shocks, height adjustability had to be done in a purely mechanical way. Here we see a simple wingnut that clamps a bar which registers within notches in the rods supporting this seatback:

A similar concept can be seen in this sprung wishbone-shaped lever, which registers within the notched seatpost:

Below right we see the notching arrangement within a wooden post, and on the left we have the classic threaded rod, the truly micro-adjustable option:

Keeping one's feet flat on the floor was an option for low stools. But should the height of the working area of the machine be taller, a taller stool was needed, meaning a footrest would also be needed. Here we see a stool with its stretchers attached quite close to the floor, and their worn top edges attest to their function.

Also note the handhold piercing the seat, in the perfect location so as not to snag a butt-cheek, and even detailed into a figure-8 shape rather than a faster-to-cut racetrack, to make it easier to pick up:

And here's a jury-rigged model built by one of the workers themselves. I'm digging their primitive but completely effective method of getting the seatback angle raking backwards:

All of these stills are taken from "Our Fascination with Vintage Industrial Stools," a video featuring Tim Byrne of Get Back Inc. (We covered Byrne and his company, which specializes in both sourcing vintage furniture and creating new pieces in a similar style, here.) It's only three minutes and change and well worth a watch:

Spunitko! (a.k.a. Hiromi Ozaki) creates works that directly confront issues faced by contemporary society. Through projects in design fictions, she questions the impact of (future) technology on human biology.

Last year, she produced Amy's Glowing Silk in partnership with scientists from Japan's National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) by inserting oxytocin, a social-bonding love hormone, into a genetically-engineered dress' fabric.

She recently presented Red Silk of Fate — Tamaki's Crush, another collaborative project with scientists from NIAS that examines the implications and possibilities for biotechnology, by embedding the love hormone oxytocin into silk. This project is inspired by East Asian mythology, where the gods tie an invisible red string between those that are destined to be together; it is similar to the western idea of a soulmate.

In the film Red Silk of Fate - Tamaki's Crush, a story unfolds around the protagonist Tamaki, an aspiring genetic engineer, who engineers her own "Red Silk of Fate" in the hope of winning the heart of her crush, Sachihiko. She sews the genetically-engineered "Red Silk of Fate" into her favorite scarf in order to win the love of her dreams.

The project is exhibited at the Teshima 8 Million Lab, a permanent pavilion on the Japanese island of Teshima that raises questions about our future through presenting ideas in science and technology. Sputniko asks through this project: 

"Will art and science recreate our mythologies?"

Photograph of the first "Red Silk of Fate" engineered by NIAS. Photo taken by Professor Hideki Sezutsu (December 2015)

Seaside Casual Furniture is seeking an exceptional talent to join our Rhode Island team to advance the design engineering process with innovation, style and a keen eye towards market trends. Our environment is creative and collaborative, fun and results driven, rewarding and challenging. The Product Design Engineer will work closely

One of the B-story gags in The Patriot is that Mel Gibson's character cannot build a rocking chair that won't break. That's because they're freaking hard to make; the most elegant ones have a light, airy appearance, which is often at odds with making them strong enough to fulfill their rocking duties.

If you want to try designing and building one, we've got an excellent inspiration and resource for you in Hal Taylor. Taylor, who formerly worked as a manufacturing engineer, has spent the past 23 years perfecting the rocking chair and elevating it to masterpiece level. 

If you're a 6'7" NBA player who wants a rocking chair to fit precisely, you call Taylor. If you're an unnamed client in Abu Dhabi who wants to purchase the best custom rocking chair in the world, you call Taylor. Colin Eden-Eadon, former editor of the UK's Furniture and Cabinet Making sat in one of Taylor's creations and proclaimed "It is the most comfortable wooden chair I have ever sat in."

"I have dedicated my life, since I started making rocking chairs in 1993, to the perfection of their beauty and comfort," Taylor writes. "If you believe another's rocker is more beautiful than mine, I might agree with you—BUT—NOBODY makes a more comfortable rocking chair."

"I have, over the years, perfected flexible back braces, the curved vertical grain headrest, a formula for achieving the perfect rocker radius and the perfect fit for each individual. Within a year of making rockers full time I realized flexible back braces were the ticket!"

In addition to selling his pieces, Taylor shares information on how to design and build them, including demystifying the tricky business of determining the right radii for the actual rocker "skis" (see "Perfect Rocker Radius," below). Here's some of Taylor's rocking-chair knowledge drops:

Flexible Back Braces

"The first rocking chairs I made for sale, 20 years ago had flexible back braces. I have been perfecting the flex ever since. I cut more pieces of wood for my back braces than most people use in four or five completed rocking chairs! In order to make a set for one chair I cut 72 separate pieces of wood—Each back brace has four full length laminations and there are five precisely tapered wedge shaped pieces of wood which, when incorporated, make the back brace stiffness distinctly non linear, providing flex where they should flex and superior strength where they need to be strong."

Perfect Rocker Radius

"When I started making rockers the perfect rocker radius seemed to be somewhat of a mystery. Some said it should be 39" others 42 inches and some would not say at all, keeping the radius they used a secret. Eventually I resolved to figure it out and now calculating the perfect rocker radius for any rocking device is easy. You can see my solution here: Proper Rocker Radius."

Vertical Headrest

"When I first started making rocking chairs I used to have dreams that showed me how to make them. In one dream, when it came to the headrest, instead of the headrest wood being horizontal, as it is in every other chair, I turned it vertical! "

"Every chair I have made since has a vertical headrest. There are many advantages to this method. The main advantage is that I can get much more curve in the headrest which means the back braces are in a very comfortable curved configuration to hug your back!"

Kerfing the Legs after Fitting

"This allows the legs to be shaped to perfection prior to gluing to the seat, thereby reducing the finish shaping and sanding to a mere fraction of what it could be."

Making Rocking Chairs to Fit

"Before I started making chairs to fit their new owner most rocking chair makers made one size chair. Sam Maloof told me that he only made chairs one size and that was to fit himself. I remember reading web sites where builders explained that rocking chairs were too complicated to attempt to change the size! That was 20 years ago, now most rocking chair makers will make to your size."

Book and Video

"In order to help others build their own rocking chairs I wrote a book and created a video on how to make this chair. If you cruise the internet you will see many web sites where folks make this rocking chair. Usually they are recognizable by looking at the top of the back braces. This is a pattern that I came up with on the fourth or fifth rocker and have not deviated since! You can read about the book and video here: Book and Video"

Up next, we'll show you one of Taylor's crazier custom creations.