This new multi-functional tool is both a knife sharpener and a tool to work on your knife combined into one unit. There are two pull-through sharpening slots, a coarse and a fine slot, for sharpening everyday pocket knives and sport knives. In addition to knife and tool sharpening capabilities, the Sharpener and Knife Tool can also be used to repair and maintain your knife. It has 8 different wrench bits that store inside the product's durable, plastic housing to use for removing pocket clips an

We take pride in nurturing a community at Core77 full of amazingly talented and thoughtful designers—which is why we've organized a contest so you can show us what you've got. 

One awesome new feature of our 2016 Core77 Designing Here/Now Conference is the incorporation of workshops led by Core77 community members. In the spirit of celebrating the depth of knowledge in skill here at Core77, we're throwing the "Teach Me Something" Video Contest. If you win, you'll be scoring 2 free tickets to the conference Thursday, September 29th in L.A.! 

With one week left to enter, here's a friendly reminder to get busy and show us your stuff.

Submissions have been flying in and we've already chosen a few semifinalists to throw in the running for the grand prize. Here are a few examples of what you guys have taught us just this week:

How to Route a Circle

LA-based Base 10 Furniture's clear and concise tutorial for how to make a perfect circle in wood using a router and jig has us itching to get into the wood shop—a clear standout of the week!

How to Make a Sawdust Stove

The awesome Germany-based maker and YouTuber Laura Kampf offered up a few of her DIY projects for the contest—one of our favorites? A camping stove made simply from a metal coffee can. 

How to Center Your Drill Bit AKA "The Wiggler"

 A simple tip from designer Joshua Dycus helps you center the bit on your drill press 100% of the time, every time. 

Thanks to everyone for your awesome submissions so far, and remember you've still got one week left! The "Teach Me Something" Contest closes next Friday, August 26th at 11:59 EST. What are you waiting for? Show us your stuff! 

Post your video on Instagram or Twitter with the hashtags #Core77sGotTalent #core77con OR on our Facebook Event Page Wall and you might just win!

Learn more about the contest and rules here!

An enormous global community enabling the creation of over 100,000 projects in the past six years, Kickstarter brings people together and brings projects to life. Earlier this month, the organization held their first annual day-long summer festival, celebrating all types of creators and innovators.

From virtual meditation to flat-pack dinosaurs and luxury candles, check out a roundup of the talent showcased at the vibrant festival:

Splyt Light

A tool to design DIY fixtures, Splyt Light is a kit of sockets and connectors that allows the creation of custom lighting. Inspired by hardware store y-connectors, the shapes are refined into matte plastic modules that can be combined into countless forms. In addition to a wall with the illuminated y-connectors, Splyt Light showcased their endless connection possibilities with an outlandish light sculpture sitting on the steps of Kickstarter Festival.

Hybycozo

A laser-cut geometric light installation, Hybycozo's intricate patterns lit up the night at Kickstarter Festival. While the goal of their Kickstarter campaign was to raise enough funds to construct a triambic icosahedron for this year's Burning Man, the polyhedrons displayed at Kickstarter were much smaller and less interactive than anticipated. Nonetheless, Hybycozo's dazzling, golden, faceted shapes were an attractive addition to the festival.

Keap

A luxury candle at an affordable price, Brooklyn start-up Keap is on an admirable mission. In the process of becoming a certified B-Corp and striving for sustainability through 30% recycled and reusable glass packaging, slow-burning all natural wax, lead-free wicks and avoiding adhesives all together, Keap is unlike any other candle maker on the market. Having already reached notable success since reaching their Kickstarter goal in November of 2015, Keap made a return to the Kickstarter community to lead a candle making workshop at the Kickstarter Festival.

Boneyard Pets

Created by 32 Square, a design and fabrication shop founded on the idea of maximum production with minimum waste, Boneyard Pets is a fun three dimensional skeletal puzzle. Made of Komatex, a brand of PVC, the flat-packed dinosaurs are ready to assemble using interlocking joints that eliminate the need for adhesive. After an interactive day of puzzle solving fun and showing visitors Boneyard Pets' endless mutant-dinosaur possibilities, the group displayed the skeletons around the grounds and in the trees, allowing the dinosaurs to appear as if they're running into the night.

Photo Credit: Boneyard Pets

SoundSelf

Virtual reality is usually associated with doing things in an artificial reality, but SoundSelf's use of virtual reality is more about not doing. Unlike most video games, this VR meditation has no end goal. The voice controlled experience generates mesmerizing sounds and visuals that are said to induce a hypnotic state. While the SoundSelf booth did not provide much for onlookers, those who had a chance to play the hour-long innovative "game" had quite the indescribable experience.

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. sdfkdslfka

How to Overcome Procrastination

I'll be honest with you, I procrastinated on finding my article to share this week. I did however find a great video that attempts to explain why this phenomenon in my brain might be happening and, if you can relate, what might be going on in yours as well. Here's to not letting that cute cat video your coworker sent you deter you from your goals today.

—Allison Fonder, community manager

Walmart's Out-of-Control Crime Problem is Driving Police Crazy

This fascinating Bloomberg article looks at how overall crime at Walmarts around the country is so bad that it's draining local police resources. By not paying for security, Walmart essentially offloads those responsibilities onto taxpayers, increasing their own profits.

—Rain Noe, senior editor

John Maeda's Next Gig? Design Kingpin of the Open Web

This morning my feed was a flurry of tweets from media Twitter, both with the announcement from Gawker and NYT Now (RIP). But, when the internet closes a tab, it opens a new one (right?), so I was excited to hear about design.blog, one of the latest endeavors from John Maeda announced along with his recent move to Automattic, the company behind WordPress and, by extension, 26 percent of the Internet. As always, excited to see where this goes.

—Carly Ayres, columnist, In the Details

Olympic Wastelands

Here are some depressing images of what actually happens to the elaborate Olympic venues years after their Closing Ceremonies. Happy Friday!

—Emily Engle, editorial assistant

Building a Tall Bike

Remember that tall bike we saw in NYC a couple weeks ago? We wondered how it was built. Here Laura Kampf shows us by constructing one herself:

Orbiting Time Lapse Camera Rig

Some crazy design & engineering from Frank Howarth this week, as he makes an overhead camera boom that slowly rotates, providing a very cool time-lapse effect with circular motion. Also: Who knew Howarth was a Tone Loc fan? (Wait 'til the end of the video.)

Steel & Wood Hatchet Handle

After Howarth's project, this is probably the most industrial-design-prototyping-class-like project of this week's batch: We see how Jimmy DiResta conceives of the form for a steel-handled hatchet, starting with an existing head, paper and pencil, then actually fabricates the thing. Super-cool to watch him mill out the handle using that UFO-shaped cutting head, then to see all of the work that goes into seamlessly integrating the wooden handle:

Restoring an Old Handplane

In the first half of the last century, manufacturers made solid hand tools that will last forever, if properly cared for. But even if they've been neglected, you can restore them to their former function and glory with a little elbow grease. Here Jay Bates shows you how, rescuing an old Stanley #5 handplane, and helpfully demonstrates how to tune and adjust one to your work.

Board-on-Board Cedar Fence, Part 2

It's still blazing hot in Texas, and April Wilkerson is still out there putting up her board-on-board cedar fence. She's devised a portable way to keep some of the sun off of her while she works, and I like the handled spacer she uses to make the job go quicker:

Breakdown Portable Paint Booth

It's also hot in Georgia, where Bob Clagett is based, and he's tired of painting his projects outside. But he's got no room in his small shop for a paint booth. The solution? Build a breakdown paint booth that can be folded flat and tucked away when not in use:

Convertible Bench

In this Honda-sponsored video, Marc Spagnuolo shows you how to make a cool "convertible" bench, where the seating parts can be flipped forward to create a table-like surface:

Samurai Sword Rack

Jesse de Geest goes at it with rotary tool and carving gouges to make an organic, one-of-a-kind sword rack out of "a murdered deer":

We're seeking exceptional motion designers. Craftswomen/craftsmen that can express and amplify creative points with the use of motion and animation. Seasoned motion designers that can extend the craft of animation and motion from concepting all the way to launch. Creatives that are comfortable venturing into the ambiguous and the unknown.

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

"A Bigger Splash" by Malika Favre

Enter That Guy Who Used to Design Your Band's Flyers In: This Illustration Competition

Outline Editions is teaming up with Using Music to create a series of artworks to accompany Using Music's collection of Library music. Why? Because most artwork used by production music libraries is unimaginative and downright cheesy. Submit an illustration, and your artwork could end up on the Using Music website and various album sleeves.

Online Competition open through August 29, 2016.

Tuesday

Bring your Coworkers to: Practice Lab: Sketching for Design Thinking

Sometimes communicating is hard—if this statement hits close to home, the Sketching for Design Thinking workshop might be right for you. Learn how to communicate your ideas through sketching, process mapping and storyboarding to make visual communication a breeze. This workshop could double as a great team building exercise, as you and your coworkers will be able to communicate without talking in no time.

New York, NY. August 23, 2016 at 6:30 PM.

Wednesday

Bring a Drama Queen to: Stage Design by Ming Cho Lee

Before it's too late, head over to this retrospective exhibition of the celebrated set designer, Ming Cho Lee. The exhibit provides an in-depth exploration of Ming Cho Lee's creative process by displaying the preparatory materials for his set designs alongside documentation of the performances. 

New York, NY. On view through September 11, 2016.

Thursday

Bring a Forgetful ID'er to: Exposure to Product Design Workshop

This workshop is a refresher course on the essentials of innovative product design and development. Learn about the overall aspects of industrial design, including need-finding, design methodology, innovation, problem solving, product graphics, interaction design, product ergonomics, product aesthetics and more.

Powai, Mumbai. August 25, 2016 at 9:30 AM

Friday

Bring a Well-Rounded Art Historian to: Moholy-Nagy: Future Present

This exhibit reveals the fascinating history of László Moholy-Nagy, a utopian artist who believed that art could work hand-in-hand with technology for the betterment of humanity. Throughout his extensive career, Moholy-Nagy was an influential teacher at the Bauhaus and experimented with art in almost all forms, including camera-less photography. Catch this content-rich exhibit before it ends this September. 

New York, NY. On view through September 7, 2016.

Saturday/Sunday

Bring a Plant Lady to: The International Garden Festival

An annual rendez-vous for admirers of contemporary gardens and design, The International Garden Festival is a forum for innovation and experimentation that showcases designers from a host of disciplines. The festival offers a unique space for which five carefully selected pavilions created by designers and architects from Canada, the United States, France and Switzerland are displayed. 

Grand-Métis, Québec. On view through October 2, 2016.

Check out the Core77 Calendar for more design world events, competitions and exhibitions, or submit your own to be considered for our next Week in Design.

I have no idea what made him think of this, but a fellow named John Heisz decided to remove his table saw blade, and replace it with a circle he cut out of paper. Here's what happened:

While you can see the burn marks in the video, what you can't see is the cut quality on the successfully-cut pieces. It's shockingly smooth:

Image by John Heisz

Image by John Heisz

On his blog, Heisz reveals that those of you ready to try this will need some patience. "There are sections of the video where I'm cutting that are sped up as much as 16 times," he writes, "so it's not the fastest way to make a cut!"

He also tried it out on aluminum, but found that "it more or less just polished the edge before wearing out. The abrasiveness of the paper works well on wood, but is no match for anything harder."

The art of go-kart racing dates back to the late 1930's, when various small, open-wheeled race cars were first developed and used in organized races around oval tracks. The sport caught on, peaking in the 1950's, but eventually faded out over the following decade.

It's an art that Douglas Varey, amongst others, is keeping alive. Varey, a design director by trade, spends his spare time building go-karts inspired by history, using re-purposed materials, frugal ingenuity, electric motors and anything else he can get his hands on.

Varey wasn't always a go-kart specialist, however. His lighting company, Resolute, produces decorative lighting for architectural specification—a cyclical business tied to construction. "With the economic collapse [in 2008], I suddenly had less to do," Varey says. "I was sniffing around for a project that I might be able to get my daughter involved with. She was 11 at the time."

Varey set his sights on go-karts, a hobby the Seattle-based designer picked up after crawling the web for a hands-on, complex, yet feasible endeavor he could take on at home using his existing tools and skillset.

"The first car was a tremendous learning experience," Varey says. "Following cars have been far less challenging. Adding to the challenge on the first car was that it was mostly built at home, in my basement, with typical home shop tools. My work did not have the fabrication shop it has now, where I do a lot of the building these days."

With each of his cars, Varey begins by looking for new challenges or skills to master. "The cars I have made have always been very different from their predecessors," he says. "Sometimes I'm chasing performance at the limited level appropriate for the genre, sometimes elegance, sometimes strong character. Sometimes it's about trying new technologies—making the shift to electric."

His latest car is no exception. Appropriately named "Austin Boulogne," the kart is modeled after its namesake, a fleet of cars that English motor company Austin sent from England to France to compete in the 1923 Boulogne Grand Prix.

"A friend and fellow builder challenged me to an Austin Seven build-off in the fall of 2014," Varey says, as to why he chose to recreate the car. "We have a racing event each June and the goal was to have a show-down at that event the following year." Varey's challengers built the German and French licensed counterparts to the Austin vehicle, a BMW and Rosengart, respectively.

As with each of these competitions, Varey typically begins by selecting the car or model for inspiration. "The idea is to then create a believable caricature that captures the original's spirit," he says. "I start by sketching."

From there, Varey translates his sketches to Illustrator, where he draws out front suspension, drive and frame schemes. Parts for the frame (a 2" x 2" box at front, 1" x 2" rails, both 1/8" wall, 1 1/4" round cross tube steel) are cut and tack welded together. ("This is the heaviest thing I have ever made," Varey notes.) Generic axle hangers are morticed into the rails of the frame and the steering box is added. Next, parts for the bulkhead frame are cut, tacked and tested to fit. Varey builds the car out from there, thoroughly documenting his process—all the way down to slip-rolling the bonnet and hand-painting the exterior. (So, we'll let him do justice to that here.)

On top of that steel frame is a bodywork of light marine Okume plywood—inspired by early aircrafts—wrapped in Xorel, a sustainable, high-performance textile made by Carnegie. Created as an alternative to vinyl, the material is PVC-free and part of a company-wide commitment to sustainability. "Xorel is the proprietary product of innovative textile manufacturer Carnegie," Varey says. "We use Xorel extensively in my company's products. It is a wonderful material I know well. I thought it would be fun to try it on something completely different."

These materials keep the car running light while still maintaining a high level of durability. The cowl for the radiator is fiberglass, one of the bigger challenges for this project. "I had never made a fiberglass mold before," Varey says. "I always try to incorporate something new like that. An opportunity to learn! Sewing the leather cushion was also a new adventure."

The wheels for the go-kart are clones of Honda Passport (scooter) wheels. Under the hood—ahem, or in the back of the vehicle—the car is powered by a 5KW BLDC motor with a sine-wave controller, similar to those used on electric bikes, as well as a 48V LiFePO4 battery pack with integrated battery management. There is also a Grin "cycle analyst" which monitors the system and provides energy consumption information, speed and so forth.

Next up on Varey's list is a Miller 91 Electric, which he plans to build with his team at work—a slight deviation from the traditional spirit of cyclekarts, which tend to be do-it-yourself projects by a solo builder. "This car utilizes both more serious tools and the various strengths of the build team," Varey says.

The Tour Caddy, ProPod is a new and radical approach to the design and manufacture of the industry standard golf trolley and golf bag. The monocoque motorized carry pod, offers an all-weather all-in-one golf solution.

Design entrepreneurs: Luggage seems to be a category in need of improvements, as evidenced by the rash of new, successfully-funded designs we've seen in the past couple of years. They've included features like expandable shelves, an integrated suit-packing system and folding fabric lids. On Kickstarter, the Trunkster featured a roll-top opening mechanism, a built-in weight scale and GPS while the G-RO was loaded with onboard charging gadgetry, a location tracker and a proximity detector.

London-based industrial design studio Morrama reckons most of the re-designs are gimmicky, and are instead focusing on function over flash for their Marlon carry-on bag:

Luggage redesigns seem to do well on Kickstarter. At press time the Marlon had garnered USD $270,000 on a $30,000 goal. The Trunkster collected $1,395,370 on a $50,000 goal, and the G-RO netted an astonishing $3,307,773 on a $125,000 goal.

But the latter two technology-loaded designs came with production delays. The Trunkster was intended to be delivered in August of 2015, but didn't start going out until Spring of 2016. The G-RO was meant to be delivered this month, but the designers have missed the target and are now aiming for December. Whether the back-to-basics Marlon will meet its May 2017 deadline remains to be seen.

The 2016 International IDSA Conference was hosted in Detroit last week with a focus on the theme of "Making Things Happen." Detroit, with it's wrought morality tale of decline from the richest city in the United States in the 1950's and '60s to it's recent designation as the country's poorest city, is a place that could use the optimism of "making" and the problem-solving approach of design to transform the lives of those who live and work in the city. Today, 60% of all of Detroit's children are living in poverty. Fifty percent of the population has been reported to be functionally illiterate. And 18% of the population is unemployed.

So how might design address some of these wicked problems?

Turns out, the answer is unclear. At the end of 2015, Detroit was named a UNESCO "City of Design," the first US city to receive the prestigious designation. And during the IDSA International Conference we heard from some hometown heroes including Moray Callum of Ford, Ralph Gilles of Fiat Chrysler, Richard Lambertson of Shinola, Scott Klinker of Cranbrook, Veronika Scott of Empowerment Plan and Olga Stella of Detroit Creative Corridor Center who spoke about the work their teams are doing to honor the recent UNESCO designation. We also heard from practitioners working outside of the city including Core77 contributor Mickey McManus and Professor Yongqi Lou from Tongji University on the future of design. Even though there were no concrete ideas for how design might help transform this "City of Design," throughout three days of programming and conversation, two themes emerged:

1) The future of design requires designing systems and the artifacts that function within those systems

2) Co-creation and interdisciplinary teams are integral to innovation

On Designing Systems

At Tongji University in Shanghai, Professor Yongqi Lou is spearheading a new era of design activism and education through DesignX, first introduced to Core77 readers in 2014 by Don Norman. DesignX is an, "evidence-based approach for addressing many of the complex and serious problems facing the world today." At Tongji, every first year student takes an open-source hardware and software class as part of their foundational curriculum—not to learn the technology but to introduce them to the "mindset," of solving problems through systems thinking. The DesignX approach is exemplified in the case study of Chongming Island where the university built an innovation hub to collaborate with local residents and farmers in designing the future of their rapidly urbanizing community. 

Prototyping at Design Harvest on Chongming Island

Taking strategies from both the Shanghai urban center and from Chongming's rural setting, the "Design Harvest" institute nurtured a two-way conversation between urban and rural. The approach was described by Professor Lou as acupuncture design—small, focused interventions that can heal the whole system. Ultimately, learnings from the innovation hub were brought back to Shanghai to help develop a small but connected urban farm while the design interventions on the Island have changed the ecosystem of the community, empowering over 100 people to make their living in a new way.

Mickey McManus, Autodesk Fellow and Chairman of the consultancy and innovation lab MAYA Design, spoke last year at the Core77 Conference about the near future of "unbounded, malignant, complexity," brought on by the rise of the internet of things, digital manufacturing and machine intelligence. At IDSA, he followed up with a deeper dive into designing new ecologies and a community of things. In the age of networked matter, McManus asks, how do we put people first? One way is to invest in new ways of learning and making. As Randy Swearer, Vice President of Autodesk Education, wrote last week, there is an "urgent need to abandon the Industrial-Age approach to higher education that dominates today. Studies of siloed individual subjects assessed by antiquated systems and given value by an increasingly irrelevant system of credits are no longer productive. The process of learning needs to be reframed to keep up with today's employment landscape."

Generative design options for a chair.

McManus argued that there is a shift from top-down design to a world of emergence and co-creation. Designers must learn how to design in a world of more complexity. Automation will continue to take jobs and new jobs will emerge where people must collaborate with machines, and learning will necessarily be lifelong.

On Co-Creation

Ralph Gilles, Fiat Chrysler Global Head of Design, shared an honest assessment of the challenges and opportunities facing the auto industry. In the "Mixology of Automotive Design," Gilles discussed everything from autonomous vehicles to big data, to designing the third space where auto designers will need to "minimize machine and maximize space," taking pages from the playbook of Apple Stores and Starbucks franchises. To address the coming demands on the auto industry, Gilles is assembling a diverse, interdisciplinary team, pulling talent from the worlds of fashion, trend, lighting and interiors. For him, the future of automotive design is in the power of co-creation, folding insight and knowledge from a wide range of collaborators from inside and outside the industry.

Back in Shanghai, Tongji University has actually designed a high school where design thinking is being used to connect siloed subjects—math, geography, history, biology and physics—and offering an interesting model for design to be the primary language for interdisciplinary collaboration.

And Shinola makes the case for collaborating with suppliers. Co-Design Director Richard Lambertson brought years of experience in the leathergoods industry to his role at Shinola where he's been cultivating relationships and manufacturing processes with American tanneries. Each product can require at least 6-8 months to develop the the leather itself but the Detroit-based company has been able to create over 580 jobs in Detroit alone through local-manufacturing, assembly, administration and retail.

Shinola's leather factory.

Finally, Molly McGlynn, a strategist at Ziba, offered some insight into storytelling and developing a brand at the annual Eastman Innovation Lab breakfast. As McGlynn defined it, a "brand is the emotional interface between organization and people." In her talk, McGlynn outlined the three ingredients to tell a good brand story: 1) Show your story 2) Find your Fight and 3) Design to Engage. The last piece of her presentation really offered a new lens into how we might be designing effective, and communicative products for the future—when designers are designing "permeable" objects that encourage consumers to not only engage but co-create and calibrate their own experience WITH a product.

For more about Co-Creation and the Future of Design, join us at this September's Core77 Conference in Los Angeles. Buy your ticket today!

We're used to seeing those standardized crash tests involving cars and concrete blocks. But Switzerland's Dynamic Test Center puts those to shame, rigging up unusual, kinetically violent arrangements at the request of clients in search of unexamined data points. What happens, for instance, when a car T-bones or rear-ends another car at 200 kilometers per hour?

200 K.P.H. T-Bone & Rear-End Crash

Okay, so that was pretty much what you thought was going to happen. But how about when a farm tractor carrying a trailer full of logs crashes full-speed into a five-car traffic jam with a flatbed truck at the front of it?

Fully-Laden Full-Speed Farm Tractor vs. Traffic Jam

It gets weirder and more eye-opening. Here's a selection of some of DTC's strange, occasionally terrifiying set-ups:

Car Carrier Crash

World's Fastest Shopping Cart Crash

Caravan Hit from Behind

RV Collision: Exterior

RV Collision: Interior

SUV Hits Pedestrian

When Skiers Collide

Car Dropped from Helicopter at 15.2 Meters (50 Feet)

Motorcycle Hits Car at Oblique Angle

DTC is, unsurprisingly, "the largest centre of excellence for vehicle safety and vehicle dynamics in Switzerland," according to the company. "Its services are available to anyone interested in taking advantage of them—whether they are from the industry, trade or service sphere or the authorities." It would be awesome if, once a month, they took random requests from Core77 readers.

Callisto Media, one of Publishers Weekly’s fastest-growing U.S. publishers, is seeking a talented full-time Art Director. Callisto is a fast-paced and successful startup at the forefront of a new publishing venture, creating books in Cooking, Health, Diet, Business, Crafts, Reference, and Fitness, among other genres.

While umbrellas are for rain in NYC, in Saudi Arabia's Mecca they provide respite from the blistering sun. Each year millions of Muslims visit Mecca for their haj pilgrimage, and after years of volunteering there, scientist Kamel Badawi has envisioned an object to serve the needs he's observed.

First and foremost it's an umbrella, providing the basic need for shade. But it goes a step further by providing a breeze, delivered by a fan located in the apex of the underside, powered by solar panels atop the umbrella.

Badawi figures he can wring enough juice out of the solar panels to power more, so he's also outfitting the umbrella with USB ports to charge external devices, a built-in flashlight, and a GPS system that would communicate with the user's smartphone.

The GPS is no extraneous gimmick, by the way; the annual haj is one of the largest regular gatherings in the world, with two to three million folks all in the same place, and having a way to pinpoint one's location would be helpful for family members who have become separated. This year, in fact, Saudi Arabia announced an intention to roll out GPS-enabled bracelets for all Mecca attendees.

As of now the Kafya, as Badawi and business partner Manal Dandis call the umbrella, is only a prototype. The pair are seeking funding, preferably from an international company, for development. They recognize that if successfully executed, the Kafya will have plenty of buyers beyond Mecca. "In order for our product to spread worldwide, we have to avoid marketing it as an exclusive haj product," Badawi told The Express Tribune.

In 2013, Hyperloop was just a conceptual design released by Elon Musk and his team at SpaceX for open source development. Musk's vision of high-speed pneumatic tube transportation system isn't a new one, but his original concept proposed a route to transport people and goods running alongside I-5, making the trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about 35 minutes. Today we're anticipating the first Hyperloop pod competition to help accelerate prototypes for a functional Hyperloop system. 

The most visible project to come out of the competition is Hyperloop One. The downtown Los Angeles startup is racing to build test equipment and prototypes for what could be the "fifth mode of transportation"—behind planes, trains, cars and boats. At this September's Core77 Conference on co-creation in Downtown Los Angeles, hear more about the Hyperloop One journey from concept to prototype from Chris Vasquez, director of product engineering, where he'll discuss "Engineering Design and the Evolution of Transportation." And don't forget to signup for an insider's tour of their headquarters on Friday!

Join us for the 2016 Core77 Conference Designing Here/Now this September 29-30 in Downtown Los Angeles!

We spoke to Vasquez about how Hyperloop One is marrying the first principles of engineering high technology to a truly innovative personal mobility experience, what it means to be working at the intersection of product and infrastructure and most importantly, when we will be able to ride the ride.

Core77: How did you get into the field of transportation design and engineering and why does it continue to excite you?

Chris Vasquez: By chance really. A co-worker from a previous employer founded the company and asked me to come onboard to product development. New challenges always excite. With startups you typically have a combination of great latitude to solve problems and accountability for work. It's stressful at times but definitely suits my personality.

The Hyperloop Levitation Rig is another unique test stand designed, fabricated and built by the Hyperloop team. This test stand is housed in an 18 cubic meter environmental chamber that is capable of achieving pressures down to 1/1000 of atmospheric. The rotor achieves surface speeds in excess of 300 m/s. These speeds are necessary to simulate Hyperloop's cutting edge levitation systems that will be adapted for use on the Hyperpod.

What are some of the unique challenges facing the engineers and designers working on the Hyperloop One?

Firstly, Hyperloop One is pretty unique in that our "product" is a mix of technology and infrastructure. How you define, design and develop products and projects in those industries is different, so that presents interesting challenges when it comes to market definition, customer identification and concept testing. The other is that we're building a completely new mode of transportation from scratch. That affords us the luxury of changing anything we want. Unfortunately that means we can change anything we want. Too many dials to turn can paralyze a team. There's a balance in finding the right amount of constraints so that engineers can make assumptions and designers can imagine concepts that are more fiction than fact.

What are some of the most successful strategies for working hand-in-hand with designers?

Trust – Bottom line: If we don't trust each other then we won't work together and we won't be honest with each other.

Clarity – Of purpose, of values. If we don't know why we exist then how will we know what we should do? If we don't know what we value then how will we know we've succeeded? If we don't know where we're going then how will we know if any step we take is moving us closer or further away.

Understanding - Know who and what you're working with. Is Sally an engineer or a designer? Is Brian a creative, an optimist, an introvert? Once we all understand who we are as individuals we, we can focus and communicate more effectively.

As both a startup, technology and design engineering company, what have been some of the most exciting moments of the product journey?

In a startup almost everything is exciting and super special because the team is so small. We all know each other and we all play a part. Personally, it's exciting when I can share work I've been doing with our experience designers and partner firms that are helping us define the customer experience. Showing engineers how the work they're doing fits into the larger picture and conversely, showing engineers how designers are converting their tech into a meaningful experience is critical for maintaining a cooperative environment. a team, the propulsion test in Vegas this past May was incredible. The days leading up were nerve-racking and the celebration after was … in Vegas. It was powerful to see both the positive and negative reactions to that moment. "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win."

When will we get to see some of the technology in action?

You've already seen our propulsion system in action this past May in Las Vegas. You'll see more integrated testing throughout the first half of next year. You'll see some of our next level concepts coming out soon!

Learn more about the future of transportation at this September's Core77 Conference in Los Angeles. Buy your ticket today! 

Slow Dance is a picture frame that makes real objects appear to move in slow motion. By taking advantage of the limits of human visual perception, this optical illusion sculpture appears to be doing the impossible—right before your eyes. Slow Dance combines technology, science, and art, in order to remind us of the natural mystery, beauty, and wonder that surround us every day.

Hannah with Flower

Insert a plant and watch it dance

People Reacting

People reacting to seeing Slow Dance for the first time

Limited Edition

There are 10 limited edition, numbered and signed, walnut versions by craftsman Forrest Stone.

Mode 1

Mode 1: Slow Dance - in this mode the object appears to move in slow motion.

Mode 2

Mode 2: Double Trouble - in this mode it looks like the object starts as one, and splits into two parts before reforming!

Mode 3

Mode 3: Pop and Lock - in this mode the object looks like it jumps through space, the way that slow motion movies in the 30s did!

Mesmerizing

It's possible to watch it for hours

At Core77, we feel strongly about providing as much information we can within the scope of design you won't find elsewhere—not in school nor other websites that cover design for the general audience. We're here for YOU designers, so this recent discussion started by Richard_Leyens certainly struck a chord with us:

"Disclosure, I'm NOT a product designer. I do however frequently find myself briefing designers – in addition to discussing typologies, materials, functionality and aesthetic qualities, I have found that these creatively talented individuals seem to enjoy gaining a deeper understanding of the economic challenges that one faces when attempting to commercialize their product/s. By layering in this piece of information it invariably results in far fewer concepts being rejected. And no one likes rejection! 

[...] I feel passionate about empowering designers by giving them a glimpse into the 'dark side' as my experience would suggest this approach (ie blurring the lines between creative and commercial elements) increases the ability to produce work that's likely to resonate within the consumer space.

Question. I wonder if a highly accessible, freely available online designer's resource to help impart this type of information would be of value to this particular segment of the creative community? My personal view is that individuals and new product businesses might welcome this, but hey, what do I know? Thoughts, comments and suggestions?"

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For the World Wide Web being as vast as it is, it's a bit astounding to realize how few readily available resources designers have to help them in their creative or commercial efforts. Given the number of designers and workers in general who are now taking the freelance route in their professional lives, it's now more important than ever to have places on the web for people to find information they need to run a successful business. 

Many designers in the discussion noted how impossible it would be to correctly do their jobs if they didn't have previous corporate industry experience. Core77er bcpid notes:

"Without understanding COGs, manufacturing constraints, market research, sales channels, product strategy, etc, I would find it pretty difficult to make design decisions. It would surprise me if any designers out there are consistently doing good work without that insight. Plus, as a person that values my time away from work, the last thing I want to do is waste time on stuff that doesn't efficiently advance the project."

Freelance designers, what say you? Do you feel as if there are resources online you can access that don't leave you a step behind big firms with in-house designers? Florida designer Jboogie941 agrees there could be more out there for designers and lists some specific topics that could be better represented online:

"I agree with all the above. I think an online resource with this type of information would be valuable especially for students and new professionals. Technically I feel Core77 sort of covers this information to an extent if one were to dig a little or ask questions. Like others have stated above, In my experience I have always worked with all departments especially on small teams. Usually most designers pick up this type of information overtime. Nothing is more valuable than real world experience. One thing I think designers might want to learn/know is process, budget, MOQ's [minimum order quantity], duty, manufacturing capabilities and managing workflow/duties. etc"

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We want to know what you know—are there resources online that you use to help streamline your design process? What do you feel is missing that you wish was easier to find on the web? Let us know in the comments or contribute your thoughts on the original discussion board post.

Lazer Tag

Getting hired at Worlds of Wonder at age 27 as my first 'real' job was a dream come true. A toy company, really? As a child I devoured toys, collecting everything — soldiers, Matchbox cars, model airplanes, board games. I was truly giddy. After experiencing what it took to bring hit toys like Laser Tag and Teddy Ruxpin to market and after discovering what the insides of manufacturing facilities in China looked like and worked like, I felt ready to bring my own ideas for toys to market. 

I licensed one of the very first ideas I came up with, a simple twist on an indoor Nerf basketball game that made use of one of Ohio Art's existing brand licenses. But after that, my luck ran out. I submitted at least 50 more concepts to Ohio Art over the next 9 months, assuming they'd want all of my ideas. But I never sold another toy. (I did license a toy to Worlds of Wonder, but the product was ultimately canceled.) I was stumped. I thought I knew toys. Did I?

The short answer is: No. Eventually, I discovered just how lucky I had been to license the Michael Jordan Wall-Ball. The toy industry is unique in that it's always been dependent on independent product developers and designers. Licensing is widespread, standard practice. And why wouldn't it be? This is an industry that is always looking to up the ante in terms of creativity. And, it's staggeringly large. TheNDP Group, a market research company, put the U.S. toy market in the $25 billion dollar range for 2015 — a 7 percent increase in domestic sales toys from 2014. According to the Toy Industry Association, hundreds of thousands of “exciting, innovative new toys and games” were debuted at Toy Fair this year.  

So I sought out Peter Wachtel, toy industry expert, to talk to me about the state of licensing toys today. After studying industrial design at the Pratt Institute in the early '90s, Wachtel became a manager at the legendary toy store FAO Schwarz and never looked back. You'd be hard pressed to find someone with more insight: Wachtel has not only designed and invented more than 500 toys, he's also served in leadership roles at prominent toy companies including Jakks Pacific, and taught toy design at the Art Institute of California, among others.

Insight from an Expert

How has toy inventing and licensing changed, I wanted to know first. Licensing is as popular as ever, he assured me, because speed to market has become even more important. You used to have a year or two to bring a new toy to market, Wachtel explained, "all the time in the world! Now you have around three to six months, and products only stay on the market for about six months to a year. The toy industry has always been competitive. But it's become extremely competitive." It's not unlike the auto industry, he added: Everyone knows everyone. And whereas there used to be about 50 to 65 toy companies across the United States, now there are more like 25. "If you weren't able to speed up with the times, you got bought up or you went away."

Toy Ideas from Peter Wachtel's portfolio

Even so, Wachtel is optimistic. "Inventors still have a very good chance!" he insists. "The toy industry is as dependent as ever on independent product developers." His advice? Focus on building a rapport with the companies you want to license your ideas to first. Go slow. And then trust your instincts about who to work with. Basically, do your best to really vet a company.

At the same time, Wachtel was quick to emphasize the importance of being willing to show and talk about your ideas. "If you're afraid…well, you're never going to do anything in this world!" I couldn't agree more. Fear prevents too many of us from failing to action.

Are Companies Stealing Ideas?

In "Big Toy Makers Clash With the Toy Inventors They Depend On," the article Bloomberg published earlier this month about litigious toy inventors, reporter Matthew Townsend claims, "allegations of stealing are rampant to the point of routine." I find that to be suspect. I think there are always two sides to every story. Toy companies depend on independent developers and designers too heavily — I think 'stealing' their ideas just isn't in their best interest. So I asked Wachtel pointblank: In all his years in the industry, had he ever been ripped off? No, he said. Not blatantly.

"These companies have been around longer than we've been alive," he stressed. "They have archives of ideas, ideas on the backburner, databases. Occasionally things do go awry. But it's very uncommon." When a company he had a good working relationship with released a new product that reminded him of an idea he had submitted, he inquired about it. The company quickly produced the sketches and prototypes another inventor had submitted to them of the idea, nearly an entire year before Wachtel had.

"An idea is just an idea," he pointed out. Don't expect to be compensated if you haven't really done anything. "You have to work it through." If you're reasonable, companies will want to work with you.

Mike and Lynn Marra

On the other hand, Mike Marra, a former toy industry executive who has licensed more than 140 toy inventions since he became a toy broker in the 1990's (half of which he and his wife invented) said, "It's a fine line. Who has the money to go around hiring attorneys? On the other side of the coin, I've known inventors in the toy industry who basically were absolutely waiting for the opportunity to sue someone because they showed them something similar…. I think there's plenty of blame to go around on both sides." Culture matters more than size. When Marra audited a small family toy company that had licensed several ideas from him some years ago, he said he uncovered a discrepancy of upwards of a million dollars. "It's never black and white."

Because toy companies are ever more reliant on their brand licenses to sell toys, he agrees there's even more pressure on inventors to be truly innovative. "Your concept has really got to fit and wow for them to want to pay a double royalty," he explained. In the past, he'd spend about 10 days surveying the new toys at Toy Fair, he said. These days, he spends on average closer to just three.

So, what else can you do to beat the odds and license your idea for a new toy?

1. Develop an intimate understanding of what's been done before you. In other words, do your research. Sure, you could get lucky, like I did. But to truly come up with something that has a chance of being licensed, you need to grasp the history of invention as it pertains to your design. Marra recommends using Google, catalogs, and sales flyers to study the market, not just toy stores. "We pour through our decades of catalogues to understand the entire history of each toy presented to us." Because the toy industry cycles through so many product ideas in a single year both internally and externally, you must substantially raise the bar. "Incremental upgrades don't cut it like it they do in other industries," Marra said.

If you can work for a toy company for some time, I highly recommend it.

2. Build great relationships with the companies you want to invent for. You need feedback to land on a hit. So get a dialogue going. What are they looking for? What are their needs? Stick to just a few categories at first so that you can master them. Believe me: These companies need you.

How should you go about cultivating a relationship? "Connect with key people on LinkedIn to introduce yourself," advises Wachtel. "Say, 'I might have ideas that are a good fit for you. Do you accept outside submissions? What are your terms?' That's it." Then, follow up on the phone and if you can, visit. The more people you know in this industry, Wachtel said, the easier making good decisions will become.

Scott Baumann's award-winning toy Squigz for Fat Brain

Since my student Scott Baumann began submitting his ideas to the educational toy company Fat Brain in 2012, the company has licensed nearly a dozen creations from him. "Success in licensing is directly correlated to the quality of the relationship you're able to develop with partners and potential partners," he told me in an interview. It is absolutely possible to become serially successful at toy inventing.

3. Prepare to work with toy brokers if you want to license your ideas to a major player. For the most part, larger companies like Mattel and Hasbro prefer that inventors work with toy brokers. If you're established, they may work with you. If not, you'll need representation. Why? Drawing from their institutional knowledge and long-standing relationships, toy brokers are capable of weeding out licensable ideas from bad.

Most toy brokers charge between $125 and $300 to review a concept, though. If they're able to sell your idea, your royalties are split 60/40 or 50/50, sometimes even less. Tread carefully. Some toy brokers charge designers to build their prototypes and presentation materials. Others require an advance to debut your product at a tradeshow. These extra costs could quickly add up to thousands of dollars! In my experience, most toy brokers will not share with you whom they're submitting to, and for me that's a problem. Make sure to ask your broker about his or her success and confirm that they work with the companies you're hoping to target. In other words, don't assume a broker's expertise extends across the entire industry.

4. Make use of non-disclosure agreements. The toy industry doesn't care much about intellectual property, although Wachtel said he's a proponent of filing provisional patent applications. Don't forget to check when the expiration date on any non-disclosure agreement you sign is.The strongest never expire.

5. Know that polished prototypes are a must. The toy industry is very visual. Toy brokers, including Marra, as well as toy companies like Fat Brain, are willing to look at and hear about ideas that are in their infancy. But to actually license one, the version you present will need to look finished — and fantastic.

6. Attend Toy Fair. The quickest way to get a snapshot of an industry is to visit its trade show. Without an appointment, you'll have difficulty getting into permanent showrooms. But smaller companies will be there too.

7. Keep coming up with more toys. Licensing is a numbers game and toy inventing even more so.The only way to win is by staying positive and refusing to give up.

The toy industry is daunting, there's no doubt about it. It was that way to me, even after some degree of familiarity. But it's also incredibly fun, and rewarding.

Learn more about Product Licensing from Stephen Key at this September's Core77 Conference in Los Angeles. Buy your ticket for Tours and Workshops today!

HDR 75

When you see photos of classic cars from past decade, they're often beautifully restored, looking better than they did when they left the factory. No such love is given to old computers, as no experts in detailing a 1975 East German HDR 75 (left) exist. More to the point, most people don't care about old computers, let alone take the time to photograph them.

London-based photographer James Ball, however, does care. After gaining access to the computer dinosaurs possessed by the UK's National Museum of Computing and the Science Museum in the UK, Germany's Technical Collections of Dresden and California's Computer History Museum, Ball turned his lenses on ten of them. Ball–who goes by the nom de plume Docubyte—then collaborated with London-based production studio INK, who digitally retouched the shots to make the computers look new.

The images from the resultant series, "Guide to Computing," are pretty stunning:

HDR 75 (1975)

Featuring such famous machines as the IBM 1401 and Alan Turing's Pilot ACE, Guide to Computing showcases a minimalist approach to design that precedes even Apple's contemporary motifs.

ENDIM 2000 (year unknown)

PACE TR-48 (early 1960s)

ICL 7500 (1970s)

This colourful series of ten historic computers, created in collaboration between myself and retouching studio, INK documents the beginning of our computing history.

Harwell Dekatron (1951)

Control Data 6600 (1964)

IBM 1401 (1959)

What's more, the combination of photography and retouching techniques has resulted in something wholly unique: the ageing historical objects as photographed, have been 'digitally restored' and returned to their original form.

Pilot ACE (1950)

Meda 42TA (early 1970s)

IBM 729 (late 1950s)

As a number of these computers predate modern colour photography, Guide to Computing therefore showcases them in a never before seen context.

It is a bit ironic that these images were retouched using their technological descendants.

You can see more of Ball's work here.

Via Hyperallergic and Telegraph