It's great to be around when manufacturing technology finally catches up to an idea that was ahead of its time. In the early 2000s, Italian industrial designers Piergiorgio Robino and Andrea Sanna created TERRA, a "chair" that's made out of dirt and grass. It's completely integrated into your lawn and you grow it yourself; it's essentially just a cardboard buck that you fill in with dirt and shower with grass seeds.

But the cardboard forms were tedious to cut out by hand, and laser cutters of the time were too expensive. So Robino and Sanna sold the last one in 2005, then called it quits.

Now that laser cutters are more affordable, they're Kickstarting another production run:

At press time there was less than 24 hours left to pledge, so by the time you read this, it may be finito. Then again, that may not matter, as you may not have pledged anyway: The asking price was €195 (USD $218) for the all-gone early-bird specials for the TERRA seat, going up to €250 (USD $279). The three-seater TERRA SOFA was €590 (USD $659). For a whopping €5,000 (USD $5,588) plus travel and lodging expenses, the duo will fly out to your site and design a large-scale TERRA lounge:

While the idea behind TERRA is undeniably great, the attendant prices might be too much for some to fork over.

Under the Kickstarter arrangement, Robino and Sanna will ship physical cardboard kits to the pledgers. But it might be cool if Robino and Sanna were to contact laser-cutter-equipped makerspaces around the world, and set up some kind of licensing agreement, whereby customers can purchase them directly from the makerspace, with a kickback going to Robino and Sanna. I have no idea how you'd audit such a thing, and how many units they could move given the current prices, but it seems that that's how things might be in future. Manufacturing technology has caught up to the great idea; now we have to wait for business to catch up, too.

I think most designers would argue that design isn't about the big picture as much as it is zeroing into the tiniest of details—they are, for one, what set apart a generic IKEA chair from an Eames classic. On that note, designers make sure with almost everything they do that the details are right on the nose, which is what made University of Cincinnati industrial design student Matches740's recent typographical query in the Core77 discussion boards worth noting: 

"One of my biggest problems I'm having in my presentations for classes and my portfolio is fonts. I don't really have a clear view on what sort of fonts to use for presentation and my biggest fear is going with something bland or old so I reach out and use different serif fonts and I get called out on it. So if anyone has any good articles to look into this sort of thing or if anyone can point me in the direction of some good font family to use that would be appreciated."

This is a simple that can surprisingly generate rich discussion. Is it better to pick fonts that are new and interesting or something so typical you barely notice it so your work can take all the glory?

Here were some worthwhile suggestions from our very own readers—

Don't go overboard

Reader van_ID wisely notes that it's important to remember why you're creating a presentation, which is to highlight whatever product you made. This means the overall focus of the presentation should ultimately be on your own handiwork:

"I have taught a few classes at the local ID school over the years. Every year there are always one or two students (make that 5 or 6) that over-design their presentation boards. Crazy backgrounds, wild fonts, Poorly executed logos for their project... these embellishments can often backfire and your crit ends up being about your board layout rather than your design work."

Helvetica never fails

To start off the discussion, readers were initially quick to respond with this fallback font designers have all come to love. Discussion board moderator TaylorWelden writes, 

You can be the slickest design student in your class and always use Helvetica fonts. Use light, regular, and bold, that's all you need. If you're really bad with fonts, and don't want to mess with them too much, with Helvetica you can never fail.

Seriously. 

edit: that is... unless you actually really do want to learn, which is what I would suggest. the Helvetica suggestion is both a joke and serious if you don't care/don't want to explore/or suck

Essential typography books for designers

A few of our readers gave some great suggestions for books that can instruct designers in these particular matters. Here a few of their book tips: 

30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime by Joshua Berger (suggested by J6Studios)

Stop Stealing Sheep and Learn How Type Works by Erik Spiekermann (suggested by hitch)

Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst (suggested by hitch)

How to work outside of the (Helvetica) box

Here are a few more suggested fonts from our readers that could work quite well for design briefs or class presentation: 

Sans Serif

Serif

What your favorite fonts to use that you believe are truly timeless? Any typographical tips or suggestions? Share them with us here or on the original discussion board post! 

Our Core77 audience is full of ultra-talented folks, and with our "Teach Me Something" Video contest we got the chance for you all to really show us your skills! Trust us: you did not disappoint. 

We're happy to announce that we have selected a grand prize winner to attend the Core77 Conference next month, along with some special honorable mentions (each of which will receive a $25 gift certificate to Hand Eye Supply). Here are just a few of our favorites:  

Grand Prize Winner

LA design studio Base 10 Furniture showed us a familiar trick for woodworkers in a wonderfully clear and concise fashion, which ultimately brought them up to the number one spot. Watching this video, you'll be working on your own wooden tabletop in no time. 

Honorable Mentions

This competition was a truly hard one to judge, so we wanted to give some shout outs to a few videos that really caught our eye:

Designer Gerry Mayer's video showing us how to create a quick foam model lathe on a Dremel blew our minds just a little bit. Who knew a foam model could look so pro in such little time?

Maker Laura Kampf's highly creative sawdust stove submission had us feeling inspired and ready to tinker away on some DIY Projects. 

Finally, Charles Margaritis shares with us the amazing pyramids he makes with his father on the beach. Charles, even though we see the whole process we still can't believe how you two are able to get that pyramid oh-so-smooth!

__________________

Congratulations to all our winners, and thanks to everyone for participating in this particularly fun first edition of Core77's Got Talent! We can't wait to see our winner next month in LA at the Core77 Conference.

You've still got time to join us September 29-30! Visit our Core77 Conference website to book a ticket today and take part in a weekend full of rich conversations on the future of design and co-creation! 

Someone in my neighborhood has a Volvo station wagon that I often see parked on my block. It has something that looks like this in the back:

When I first saw it, I figured the owner had a dog, unruly children or a history of kidnapping. But after seeing this crash test footage, I now realize it's probably for something else.

Bad

Yes, that's what happens when you're hauling stuff and get into a front-end collision. Looks pretty bad. But if you have a cargo barrier and have secured your cargo properly, things look much safer.

Good

And if you've got a cargo van or minivan, you oughtn't just leave heavy items on the floor. The crash below doesn't look so bad on the first and second takes--but watch the subsequent takes, especially when the camera angle switches to the passenger side.

Ugly

What happens to the passenger-side seat is freaking devastating. In one of the shots, we see that the box on the driver's side is marked to weigh just 3.5kg (7.7 pounds). If the weight on the passenger-side box is the same, that seems an absurdly low weight to cause that kind of damage. As for why the seats would behave differently, my guess is that the driver's side only has powered-seat options that perhaps require better anchoring, but admittedly I'm just guessing.

At Honeywell Aerospace we are seeking talented and passionate Industrial Designers capable of creating amazing products and experiences. Come join the newly created Honeywell User Experience Studio in Phoenix, Arizona. You have a unique opportunity to help build a world-class design group at a company with a

We've seen a fair amount of design entrepreneurs' websites where the "About" section is longer than the "Product" section. These folks write endless paragraphs about the excellence of their product, what the brand communicates, their classic use of materials, their design innovations. Then you look at the product and it's just...a "blah" object that you or I could make in a basement.

A company called Combatant Gentleman, or Combat Gent for short, is just the opposite. Their website is loaded up with stellar product and doesn't even have an "About" section. But ironically, company founder Vishaal Melwani has the most interesting story of all.

Melwani has pulled off the classic design entrepreneur move: Identify a hole in the market, plug it, and reap profits. If you can find an item that retails for $800—in this case, a men's suit—then figure out how to manufacture a well-made, stylish, competitive alternative for $24 to $37 and retail it for $160, then you have the foundation for success. Combat Gent launched in 2012 and has doubled revenue every year; the most recent projection had them at $20 million in annual sales.

Because Melwani and Combat Gent's story isn't on their site, we scoured the web to piece it together. What we found is that Melwani is no overnight success story, and while his training was more or less accidental, we wanted to break out 14 relevant "ingredients" to his success. While you might not be able to duplicate all of these, you can surely learn from them.

1. Learn the Trade

"When I was seven, I started helping my dad do hems by hand in his tailoring shop in Las Vegas. As I got older, my dad gave me more alteration work to do, like closing seams, pleating, and re-pleating.

"Once I turned 13, my dad started giving me full alteration jobs. I would be at the store every day after school and every weekend until high school, learning alongside my dad and other master tailors."

--from Melwani's Reddit AMA

2. Learn About Business, Even If You Don't Want to

"Around that time, my parents became the first franchisees of Gianni Versace and built the Gianni Versace boutique in the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace.

"Working at my parent's boutique helped me fall in love with fashion, but funnily enough my parents were completely against me going into the family business. To them, they worked in the apparel industry because it's all they knew and they didn't consider it to be prestigious work by any means, so they were adamant that I go to college and learn a more respectable trade.

"I (begrudgingly) went to the University of California, Irvine and studied International Business, but the whole time all I could think of was that I'd rather be working and putting ideas into practice than sitting in a classroom and learning theories."

--from Melwani's Reddit AMA

Melwani's experience as a tailor in his family's shops has given him a unique perspective both as a businessman and creative director. As a businessman, he learned the value of running a business by the numbers; as creative director, he gained an appreciation for the work and craftsmanship that goes into each product.

--from My Total Retail

3. Follow Passion—and Learn About the Logistics Surrounding the Passion

"[In college] I was making custom selvedge denim as a hobby, but I was set on the law school path because I knew that would make my parents happy....

"I took the LSAT, was about to go to law school, and then...got over it. I just knew it wasn't for me; I wanted to be working in the real world. I was fortunate enough to secure a position at a top Japanese denim mill as their head of exports, so I got to see the behind-the-scenes of how raw denim is made and all of the intricacies of manufacturing and supply chain management."

--from Melwani's Reddit AMA

4. Use What You Know to Make Money, Even if it's Not Initially in Design

[After the denim exporting company job, Melwani] went on to launch his own clothing production company called Melwani's MFG, which manufactured small batches of apparel orders in China. Typically, to manufacture in China, designers have to place orders in bulk quantities; Melwani was able to process small orders because of family connections.

In 2010, he sold the company for approximately $3 million.

--from Entrepreneur.com

5. Identify a Gap in the Market

"As I was figuring out my next move, I visited some friends in New York who had just gotten their first jobs out of college working on Wall Street. One morning I witnessed their daily clothing routine -- four guys in a shared apartment would gather in the living room and swap suits, shirts and ties, because they only owned a handful of each."

--from Melwani's Reddit AMA

Melwani found the suit-swapping funny and suggested they take a trip to Men's Wearhouse, known for its convenience and reasonable pricing.

The experience shocked him. "I literally walked in and I was like, 'Oh my god!' It's like 1987 slapped me in the face." Immediately, he knew had identified his calling: To create a platform for men to buy stylish, inexpensive suits.

The seed for Combat Gent had been planted. Melwani, along with his cousin Mohit Melwani and long-time friend Scott Raio, decided they would use the access they had to factories through Melwani's family to come up with a better solution for their friends than Men's Wearhouse.

--from Entrepreneur.com

6. Figure Out Your Production First, Not Last

[Combat Gent sells] something simple and aggressively priced. Rather than ruminating about aesthetics, the Melwanis...spent their company's early days talking to family contacts around the world in order to figure out exactly how efficiently and cost-effectively they could produce a suit. They found wool in Italy, cotton in Turkey and India, and a factory in China where they began training seamstresses.

--from Men's Journal

7. Figure Out How to Market to Your Customers

Since 2012, Melwani has used social media to grow Combatant Gentlemen, generating a close-knit fan base in the process. For example, a "selfie" campaign helped drive consumer engagement and sales for the apparel retailer.

"Word-of-mouth has always been a huge revenue driver for us," notes Melwani. "Guys tend to rely on other guys' opinions when it comes to making important purchase decisions. We also believed that our customers would identify more with pictures of average Joes wearing our clothes as opposed to a typical glossy fashion photo shoot. We decided to combine these insights and offer all of our customers an incentive to share their outfit with their friends. Any customer who takes a selfie in our clothing and posts it on Instagram gets a free tie. This simple campaign helped create a viral loop that lead to explosive growth in our first year of business."

--from My Total Retail

8. Keep Costs Down While Maintaining High Quality

"We are more focused on the supply chain than the brand's story," explains Vishaal Melwani. "The quality of the suits is comparable with a lot of the Hugo Boss stuff you can find in a department store for $800. The total cost of producing one of our suits is between $24 and $37 plus shipping and we're actually invested in factories abroad so we can be even more competitive about price."

Vishaal's honesty about production costs is a bit shocking – he says transparency is one of the services he wants to offer his savvy customers – but the numbers are even more surprising. Most run-of-the-mill suits from unknown or lesser labels cost at least $500, while Combatant Gentlemen sells its goods for $160. Vishaal explains the cost differential by pointing out that everyone in the clothing industry is always fussing about the art of tailoring and fabric choice, even though most companies work far from the cutting edge.

...Combatant Gentlemen suits are well sewn, constructed of at least 60 percent wool, and available in medium and thin fits. The suits are all black, grey, and navy. They're unapologetically middle of the road, but they look good, don't wrinkle easily, and never unravel.

--from Men's Journal

9. Own the Supply Chain

Combatant Gentlemen is able to price its suits so competitively because it's taken complete control over the supply chain, significantly reducing its production costs in the process. The retailer sources wool from its own sheep farm in Italy and cotton from its own cotton fields in India.

--from My Total Retail

Where typical retailers cobble together each stage of the production process from different suppliers and manufacturers, Combat Gent owns the entire supply chain. The company shears its own sheep in Biella, Italy, and then sends the wool to a 100-plus-year-old mill in northern Italy where it is turned into fabric. From there, the material is transported to Shandong, in Northern China, where it is cut and sewn by hand into suits based on the patterns that Melwani designed.

--from Entrepreneur.com

10. Don't Sleep on the Software

Combat Gent has built the back-end software to support that kind of supply-chain process [described in the paragraph above]. Already, there are "a few" other brands using his supply-chain software, although he can't say which. The front-end software is also pretty savvy; it allows a customer to quickly enter his measurements and get a recommendation on the right size to order.

11. Is What You're Making Necessary?

"I don't consider myself a designer because I make corporate essentials," says Vishaal. "We make stuff you need more than stuff you want."

--from Men's Journal

12. Get Your Name Out There

In late 2010, when Combat Gent was still in beta mode, Melwani dropped into a fashion tech pitch competition in San Francisco. He was pushed up on stage by his friends and winged what was supposed to be a two-minute pitch. The judges -- from Gucci, Zappos, North Face and Apple -- loved the brand concept so much, they kept him talking for 37 minutes.

Combat Gent won the competition, an investment from Gucci board member Enrico Beltramini, and a spot at Beltramini's fashion technology accelerator, Ahead of the Fashion. The Zappos representative who was there also arranged for Melwani to meet with CEO Tony Hsieh -- a meeting that resulted in an investment from the Vegas Tech Fund, where Hsieh is a partner. CombatGent went on to raise $2.2 million in venture funding and now has 32 employees.

--from Entrepreneur.com

13. Seek to Grow

The brand is on the verge of releasing a denim collection and its tie offerings grow by the day. Vishaal occasionally has to sit down behind a sewing machine to fill the ever increasing number of orders.

--from Men's Journal

Melwani says he is "actively exploring" a women's collection and promises shoes are coming "very soon," although he declined to offer a firm timetable.

--from Entrepreneur.com

14. Play to Your Strengths

"Do what you know best," he says. "Any business will involve lots of learning as you go, but you might as well pick a market where you already have some experience and a strong knowledge base. I can't tell you how many fashion and e-commerce brands fail because they're launched by business school students with next to zero familiarity with the industry they're trying to enter. Don't let that happen to you."

--from My Total Retail

Lastly, this isn't a tip, but some of you are surely curious how Melwani arrived at the company's name:

Where does "Combatant Gentleman" Come From?

"It was inspired by those friends of mine who would swap clothes -- they were young, ambitious, out to have a good time, but at the same time they were striving for professional growth and respectability in their fields. They were gentlemen, but they were also aggressive and outspoken. 

Around that time the show Entourage was getting really big, and when I saw this scene in which Ari Gold storms into a competitor's office and starts shooting people with paintballs while wearing a well-tailored suit that the name "Combatant Gentlemen" came to me. I thought it embodied the dichotomy that was at the heart of the brand and also the spirit of the millennial male who was our target market.

--from Melwani's Reddit AMA

Invented before industrial design became an established profession, incandescent lightbulbs epitomize what would later become the field's mantra of "Form follows function." The wire filament provides the illumination, while the glass bulb is there to keep air out and prevent the filament from oxidizing.

Though incandescents are now obsolete, both consumers and designers seem to have a hard time abandoning the classic lightbulb's form factor. But Hong-Kong-based lighting designer Yat Ming is at least trying to make it more interesting with his URI bulbs. Ming's idea is to create the "bulb" out of flat pieces that interlock, creating the form radially. These flat pieces have patterns etched into them with a laser cutter.

Illumination comes from LEDs within the base. By exploiting the fact that the edges of a piece of acrylic will illuminate when light is applied at an oblique angle, he's able to achieve some interesting visual effects:

Ming plans to produce the bulbs through his company, NAP, and is currently running a Kickstarter to gain the funds for tooling. The relatively low target of HKD $70,000 (USD $9,025) looks certain to be met, as at press time he was a third of the way there, with nearly a month left to pledge.

The bulbs are of course more decorative than functional, drawing just 3 watts each, equivalent to a 25-watt incandescent. He's offering them in both 110v and 220v and hopes to sell them globally, with prices starting at USD $50 a pop.

In this video I'm demonstrating a simple pencil technique of using not only the tip of the pencil, but also the side of the pencil to create dimension and depth. I use my favorite Prismacolor pencils here, taking care to keep the pencil sharp throughout the sketch. 

This is a very simple technique but amazingly effective. When done right you get very dynamic sketches with a very human touch to them. Try going fully analog with no color on your sketches for a few days and then try combining this technique with others like marker rendering or even adding color in Photoshop. Have a watch with the sound on to hear me explaining everything in detail. Comment below with any questions and I'd love to hear your suggestions for future videos...and of course like and share! :-)

Yo! C77 Sketch is a monthly video series from Core77 forum moderator and prolific designer, Michael DiTullo. In these tutorials, DiTullo walks you through step by step rapid visualization and ideation techniques to improve your everyday skills. Tired of that guy in the studio who always gets his ideas picked because of his hot sketches? Learn how to beat him at his own game, because the only thing worse than a bad idea sketched well is a great idea sketched poorly.

Construction technology has adapted to meet the demands of the modern and complex job site but protective safety equipment has seen fewer updates. EXO is a concept suite of smart and connected safety products that include a responsive hard hat, adaptive hearing protector, and an assistive respirator that takes the guesswork out of lung protection. With each solution, we focused on finding cost-effective technologies that added significant safety benefits without burdening the end-user.

I routinely get asked about what books I recommend for people trying to learn this or that. So I thought I would make a short list of the more important titles I stock in my store.

This list is about what I recommend for the first book I would give to someone on a specific subject. A lot of great books aren't on this list. For example To Make as Perfectly as Possible is a great, great book, and I learned a lot from it, and eventually everyone should read it eventually, but it's not a beginner's book.

Joiner And Cabinet Maker. My book (sort of). The only book, ever, to teach woodworking from the pre-industrial age. The original text is from 1839, I wrote the historical commentary, Chris Schwarz built the the projects in the book and give a modern perspective on the construction which is very valuable. I might be biased, but the original 1839 text makes this one of the most important books on using and learning handtools I know of; it has the only narrative lessons I know of that teach woodworking and it is a very entertaining way of learning basic joinery. If you build the three projects in the book you will learn all the important skills of joinery and basic cabinetmaking.

By Hound & Eye: A Plain & Easy Guide To Designing Furniture With No Further Trouble. I recommend this book to counter a major skill deficit I constantly see: The inability to articulate a design, where you have it in your head but can't draw it out. This book isn't about capital-"D" Design, but instead covers the nuts and bolts of classic proportions, geometric construction, and finally putting together a workable design. I have always considered myself an experienced designer and a lot of the book for me seemed like review. But getting back to basics, and refreshing and practicing basic layout skills, helped me reconnect with the vocabulary of design.

The Essential Woodworker is a fairly short book that tries pretty successfully to distill all the important basic hand tool operations into a simple set of instructions. I am very glad to see it back in print and it's a great book for learning about using hand tools from a modern context.

Whittling and Woodcarving I have owned a copy of this book since I was a boy. The projects range from trivial to really complicated. From the 1930's it's a great way for someone who is pretty tool friendly to start to learn to whittle and carve really cool stuff.

Woodworking in Estonia. This cult favorite was actually pirated and translated into English by the CIA in the 1960s! This is a new, authorized edition with the same great info on green woodworking. Estonia still had an active greenwood tradition even after World War II, and the author traveled around Estonia documenting how people did this sort of work; it's not a how-to, but a record of what people did, the tools they used, and how the work fit into the context of life. I am mostly interested in the tools, but the whole book has always been useful because it puts stuff in context. The text is a bit academic, but I'm thrilled by the insights provided by his sources.

Our reprinting of Paul Hasluck's Carpentry and Joinery Illustrated brings back the most important book every written on traditional architectural woodworking. If you are remotely interested in the subject as a builder, restorer, or architect, this book is a real must have. This edition has a new introduction by Roy Underhill.

Dictionary of Woodworking Tools is the starting point for understanding the world of woodworking tools and the nuances that differentiate tools by their use and trade.

For purely mercenary reasons I'm only listing books we sell. There are a lot of great books out that that I would normally recommend, or that we used to stock, but they are out of print at the moment. Bernard Jones" The Complete Woodworking is one of these books—and we hope to bring it back in print shortly.

Other good books we don't stock, either because deep down I think another book we do stock is better, or because the book is so heavily discounted by our competitors that a small vendor like ourselves cannot afford to tie up inventory in such a low margin item.

The idea behind a company called Joybird has merit: Sell mid-century-modern-inspired furniture online to customers who have graduated beyond Ikea. But suspicion sets in once you look at their website closely.

Marketing-Speak 

The first red flags come from the marketing copy, which sounds less like the truth and more like bland platitudes that they think customers want to hear, like the text below the following image:

Skillfully Crafted

Superior quality begins with sourcing the finest materials available and using proven artisan manufacturing techniques to create timeless and exquisite furniture built to last a lifetime. We believe in an old-school approach to creating furniture the way it was meant to be built with each and every piece carefully thought out and tested by real-life humans.

Should "finest materials" be used next to a photograph of plywood? What are these "proven artisan manufacturing techniques?" And what's the "old-school" approach, are they using handplanes and spokeshaves?

Then there's this mess of a company description:

"We don't just build furniture - I mean don't get us wrong we do - but we also have a great passion and respect for what we do. We live, eat and breathe mid century modern inspired furniture and are thrilled to do what we do."

"Made in North America"

Here's their description of the factory location:

"As more and more companies move overseas, we keep our manufacturing close to home in North America, helping grow local communities by providing well paying jobs, benefits, and a family culture like no other."

By "North America" they obviously mean "Mexico." Manufacturing in Mexico isn't uncommon these days—why hide it? Also, is "helping grow local communities by providing well paying jobs, benefits, and a family culture" in Mexico any better than doing the same in China? This sounds like they are trying to have it both ways: That they want to trumpet a Made-in-America provenance that they cannot truly claim, while gaining praise for not manufacturing in Asia.

Dumbing Things Down for Customers

Overall, the company's copy reads like it's targeted at people who don't know anything about furniture or materials. Read their caption of the desk below:

"shown in walnut wood"

As opposed to what, walnut metal?

Too Close for Comfort?

Here's where it gets disturbing. This is Joybird's "Unson Credenza:"

Joybird's Unson Credenza

Below is a sideboard designed in 1955 by Finn Juhl, the Danish industrial designer who helped popularize Danish Modern in America:

Finn Juhl sideboard, c. 1955

Does that seem okay to you?

Deceptive Descriptions

Here's the description for Joybird's Xavier Desk:

Top-Notch Materials

No cheap fillers to be found here—we employ firm, all-natural wood for an organic look and a solid structure.

We call bullshit:

It's no secret why a company like this can still succeed. Their Unson retails for $2,239. Design Within Reach sells Juhl's original for $8,950.

On a daily basis my head is quite fully occupied, whether I'm thinking about what to eat for my next meal, the e-mails I need to answer, a new project or how I'll finish my to-do list. Especially in our world of data, there is always something more to check or catch-up on, with hardly any moments of rest in-between. Even on the toilet I watch Youtube! This creates a condition that I like to call "monkey mind:" the result of too many random things going through my head, and my inability to control any of them. I start to think about something and before I know it, one hour (at least) has gone by. 

I recently decided it was time to learn how to better control my mind, so I went on a Buddhist retreat in Thailand and immersed myself in the practice of Vipassana meditation. For ten days I lived among the monks and was fully-focused on meditation—no talking, reading, writing or anything else, really. It was super boring but an amazing experience! They taught me not to think about the past or worry about the future, just live in the now and focus on the little things that make up the present moment: really tasting the food I eat, feeling the sun on my skin and the air I breathe. Obviously I didn't master this amazing skill after only ten days, but I definitely learned a lot from them.

Have any of you tried a form of meditation before? I'd love to hear about your experiences–whether successful or not—in the comments below!

This story originally appeared on Story Hopper, a collection of design stories worth sharing, squeezed into short videos.

How to pique interest in another spooky motion picture about technology run amok? Have a powerful AI take a crack at pitching it to humans. In support for the upcoming release of Morgan, 20th Century Fox enlisted IBM's Watson to put a real thinking-machine take on the tech thriller's trailer. The scary part? It works great. 

Here's the result, with commentary by its human parents:

To accomplish the trailer's design, IBM used new Watson APIs and machine learning. Trailers for 100 horror movies were scrutinized for audio, visuals, and composition. These categories had Watson filtering through facial cues, dialog, lighting, soundtrack and more in search of core factors that make a trailer eerie, emotional, suspenseful, and compelling to us squishy meat robots. 

What makes a good trailer is still hotly contested (at least on the internet), so we might fairly assume that our new AI companions are a long way from recognizing and replicating human emotional nuance (goodness knows many humans still are, especially on the internet). But Watson's treatment of the Morgan footage is pretty damn strong. 

The trailer was given final creative massaging by human editors, but it shows a familiar handle on the pacing, lighting, dialog, and tone traditionally used to create narrative and stimulate human interest and tension. Perhaps most importantly, it cut what would have been weeks of human research and labor down to just 24 hours. 

While there is no true "average" viewer, and no universally correct way to make or pitch a film, movie tropes use a lot of subtle socially enacted cues. Watson's successful replication of editing for those emotional and intellectual cues illustrates the thrilling breadth of uses for machine learning. ...And how easily we'll be manipulated when the time comes for our digital overlords to rise.

Morgan opens September 2. For more on the IBM team's process check out their PR blog post here.

Go Ahead Tours is looking for a Designer to join our team, working at our Boston headquarters. Reporting to the Art Director, you’ll be an integral part of our creative team. You’ll work closely with writers, other designers and business stakeholders to create a holistic experience for a direct to consumer brand.

Bluetooth entry locks are common enough to be found in any hardware or big box store. Bluetooth padlocks—not so much. They're out there but are harder to find, because with the exception of the ones from MasterLock, most are made by small companies that lack the means to promote them in a big way.

Dog and Bone is one such company. Based in Australia, they're best known for their smartphone cases, some of which offer wireless charging. But their Bluetooth padlocks are cooler. I encountered them this May at the National Hardware Show and was taken with the sleek simplicity of their LockSmart model—which has been out since last year.

Designed to be used indoors or out, it has the look and feel of an old school lock. But the red rubber cap on the bottom gives it away. The cap covers the micro USB port used to charge the lock's internal battery and the button used to rouse the unit from "sleep mode".

The lock can be paired with any Bluetooth enabled smart device that has the LockSmart app on it. Once paired, it can be opened by keying in a pass code, using Touch ID or Fingerprint, or by pushing the shackle into the lock when it's set to proximity mode. In all instances the smart device must be within 15 meters of lock for Bluetooth to connect.

It's great that there is no key to carry or combination to remember but if this was all the lock could do it would not be that interesting. The best thing about it is that you can share access by providing others with a "digital key." This can be done by opening the app and texting an invitation to a recipient who has the app on their phone—if they don't have it they can get it via a link in the text. 

The owner of the lock can grant that person unlimited access, one-time access, or access on a fixed schedule—with or without an expiration date. Access can be revoked at any time. Keys can be shared with multiple recipients, each with their own level of access.

The app can control multiple locks, which can be identified by the name of your choice or an uploaded photo of where they are located. The owner can receive text notifications or use an activity log to track who has accessed the lock and when.

According to Dog and Bone, a fully charged battery is good for 2 years or 3,000 opens. The app will alert you to the lock's state of charge. A depleted battery can be recharged from any device that can supply 2 amps of power to a mini USB cord. It takes two hours to fully charge a battery but a few minutes of charging should be enough to get the lock open.

My friend Ted recently broke an ankle and as part of the fix had pins installed in the bone. He wasn't awake to see it, but I'm sure the orthopedic surgeon used the kind of fancy pants surgical drill that costs upwards of $20,000 and must undergo a lengthy sterilization process between uses. That's fine, if like my friend, you live in a wealthy country with the resources to provide cutting-edge medical care.

But for people who live in isolated communities in poor or developing countries the opportunity to be treated in a modern operating room with sterile equipment might not exist. In an effort to bridge the gap, a group of engineering students (Engineers in Scrubs) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) worked with surgeons from Canada and Uganda to develop a low-cost alternative to conventional surgical drills.

Their solution was brilliant, a waterproof fabric bag with a metal collar that connects to an external chuck. A small cordless drill—the kind found in any hardware store—can be placed in the bag, connected through the collar to the chuck, and used to spin it and the surgical bit it contains. 

The open end of the bag closes like the kind of dry bag one uses while rafting or kayaking: roll it a few times, snap the clasp, and the contents will be sealed inside.

The cover of the material is soft enough for the surgeon to control the drill through the fabric. 

When the procedure is finished the drill is removed and the bag, collar, and chuck sterilized in an autoclave. The bag is impervious to moisture and pathogens so the drill itself need not be sterile—which is good because the pressurized steam in an autoclave would destroy it.

The availability of this device allows orthopedic surgeons in undeveloped countries or disaster areas to do a better job than would be possible with the hand-cranked drills or non-sterile equipment they might otherwise be forced to use. 

A UBC student spin-off company, Arbutus Medical, commercialized the product and is marketing it to surgeons (and veterinarians) around the world.

Everyone has his or her preferred way to wash the dishes; people use sponges, dish clothes, brushes and more. When creating kitchen sink organizers, some designers create products intended to hold a specific cleaning tool, while others go for multi-purpose organizers. Sink sizes are styles are another consideration when designing this type of organizer.

Reenbergs magnetic cloth rail (which seems to be the same as the Skoy Rail) attaches with a magnet built into the end of the rail and another strong magnet that goes on the back side of the sink—so it will only work if that back side is reachable. The Reenbergs version comes in two lengths, and it has an option for stronger magnets to work with Corian, Silgranit and similar sinks. Those are both wise options to ensure the rail can work for most end users. Purchasers note that these dual magnets really work; some mention how much better they are than suction-cup products they tried in the past.

The rail comes with stickers to hold those back magnets in place if the rail is removed to clean the sink, but some purchasers have noted the stickers don't always hold. Skoy notes that something stronger, like duct tape, might be needed—especially if the sink has a rough underneath surface. 

Reenbergs also has a flexible rail that can be used in corners, which may be more convenient for some end users—and might allow for a better fit in small sinks, where even the shorter rail could be too long. This one is entirely plastic, and comes in a choice of nine colors.

Magisso takes a different approach to the magnetic cloth holder, with an arm that extends out from a magnetic base. Again, a second magnet on the back side of the sink keeps the holder in place. 

There's nothing provided to hold the rear magnet in place if the holder is removed to clean the sink—but the holder has a swivel arm (straight or curved) that can be readily removed from the magnetized base, so cleaning around it should be pretty easy. The swivel arm allows the end user to keep the cloth close to the side of the sink during the day (so it's not in the way) but move it out toward the center of the sink for better drying when the sink is not in use.

Magisso also has a magnetic sponge holder and a magnetic brush holder for those who use different cleaning tools.

Of course, sponge holders can also sit by the side of the sink. The OXO Good Grips sponge holder accommodates two sponges or scrubbers. It has open sides and bottom vents for air circulation, and the drip tray is removable for easy cleaning. One potential drawback noted by some purchasers: The holder is shorter than many sponges. Depending on the countertop material, how drippy the sponges are and how fussy the end user is about little puddles, this could be an issue. Also, some purchasers wish this holder had some kind of non-skid feet; as is, it's a lightweight item that often moves around when removing or replacing sponges.

The Spongester also holds two sponges, but is designed specifically to allow an end user to keep track of which sponge is used for washing dishes vs. which sponge is used for grubbier tasks like cleaning the sink or the stove. (If one sponge goes from being the "good" sponge to the "evil" sponge over time, or if the end user likes the simplicity of buying a single type of sponge, then getting two different colors or styles of sponges won't solve the problem of knowing which is which.)

The Joseph Joseph countertop sink caddies (large and small) can hold everything used for dishwashing, including the liquid soap in a not-too-large bottle. Some end users really like having an integrated all-in-one organizer, while others will find it somewhat silly to put the soap bottle into a caddy like this. The one complaint some purchasers have is that the section which holds the brush and soap has no drainage holes.

The Sink Storage Helper from Ippinka caught my eye for one nice feature: the ring holder. This would be really handy for end users who remove their rings when doing the dishes.

End users with limited counter space might prefer in-sink caddies, such as the Sink Aid from Joseph Joseph with spaces for a sponge, a brush and a dish cloth. This does use suction cups; some purchasers found they worked fine, while others had problems with them. One other concern: The opening for the brush isn't large enough for some brush handles.

Simplehuman has two sink caddies: the slim one holds two sponges side by side while the larger one also holds a brush. Again, some purchasers have had problems with the suction cups, but Simplehuman offers suction cup stickers to help keep the suction cups in place. The brush holder has a pop-out silicone base so it can extend downward to hold taller brushes.

The UMBRA saddle sink caddy designed by Ross + Doell is intended for standard double sinks—but some divided sinks have a center strip that's too wide for the saddle. For the right sink, though, it's a simple way to store a couple sponges or scrubbers. 

Casabella's Sink Sider Faucet Sponge Holder is designed for sinks that are not divided. (I've seen photos of it being used in divided sinks, and that seems awkward.) It has adjustable straps to fit around most faucets. It's not deep enough for many scrub brushes, though, and some larger sponges may not fit. As with any such product, it's not for everyone.

One final note: For many of these products there were complaints from some purchasers about rust (for some of the stainless steel products) and mold that was hard to remove (for the rubber or plastic products, or parts of products). Anything a designer can do to minimize such problems would certainly be welcomed: avoiding hard-to-clean crevices, ensuring adequate drainage, etc.

Conbox is an electric fan designed to be pleasing to the eye all year long. If you do end up wanting to store the fan in cooler months, Conbox is easy to take apart and put back together again. Paired with a simple smart phone app, Conbox is a convenient and beautiful way to keep cool.

I'm not proud, but I've always thought of tubas as obese trumpets you wear. Not for lack of respect, (I played a wind instrument! I actually like polka! Some of my best friends were in marching band!) but they're silly looking. I was fine treating them like a baritone bowl of spaghetti until I stumbled onto the how-it's-made video below, which forced me to admit that they're also cool, and their construction is fascinating. 

Forgive me, but I'm going to assume you know as much about the tuba as I did, which was nearly nothing past its "definitely an instrument" status. The tuba is a wind instrument in the brass family. It is powered by pushing vibrating air straight from the mouth through its amplifying metal wiggles. Tone is affected by the vibrations of the players' own lips, and articulated by valves that divert air through secondary tubes. These smaller tubes augment the effective length of the tuba, and are meticulously designed to shift the tone's pitch in specific increments.

Like most instruments, tubas vary in size and shape for different styles of play, and to convey different fundamental pitches. The longer the tuba the lower the sound. Put clumsily, the total length of a tuba's central tube determines its pitch, a bit like the amount of remaining beer sets the tone when you blow into the bottle. 

A sousaphone is a type of tuba. Don't fight me on this.

After bouncing around the harmonics chambers, the notes are projected blattlily out of the bell section and into the world. The wide horn affects tone and projection, and ensures even symphonies have comedic members. 

While (like our blessed internet) tubas really are just a series of tubes, they're also (like our blessed internet) created with TON of nuanced precision. This video is the best I've found of the subtle tube transitions and construction, and made me wish I had one to pour over and toot on.

Now you know! 

This story originally appeared on Cool Hunting

In early June Cool Hunting visited the GM Design Center when the then still unnamed Escala was being assembled for the first time, spending the day with a deep dive into all aspects of the car and the many, many people involved in bringing it to life—interior and exterior design, fabrication, communications, and the many talented craftspeople in the studio who bring the wood, leather, metal and fabric elements to life by hand. 

The Escala represents the best of the company's talents coming together to showcase the brand's vision. What struck us was how the project's core team, including some of the youngest and newest talent, worked hand-in-hand with some of the company's most experienced. That collaborative creation was honest, inspired and occasionally spirited.

Carrie Crawley, Strategic Design Manager

Cadillac exterior designer Frank Wu working on the clay model for the Escala.

Taki Karras, Cadillac's Exterior Design Manager, walked us through the car, noting that the Escala completes the experience trilogy, and that despite the time between the design of the concept cars that it was important to capture the spirit of the brand and the physical proportions. "What you'll notice on the front view of the car, the big difference between where we have been in the past and where we are now is with the graphics on the front in terms of the lighting signature," he says. "On this vehicle we're introducing a bit of a horizontal element into the Cadillac design language, and what that does is allows us to get your eye to walk all the way around the car and have more harmony in the design." Adding, "We really wanted to play up proportion first and foremost as your first read, then this clean beautiful surfacing with very high-tech details that give a modern aesthetic." He commented on one of those tech details, the use of OLED lighting, which allowed the designers to place lighting where they couldn't previously, noting the unique tail lights and their laser etching. You can't help but notice the sculptural element that supports the front doors, which he notes creates a "beautiful piece of restrained artwork that has a functional purpose."

The wheels and tires received equal attention as well. Cadillac worked with Michelin to create the 20" tires, which feature the Cadillac chevron in the original tread design. The wheels have a milled aluminum piece on top, allowing the spokes to reach the center and to hide the lug nuts. The components for the wheels were all designed and milled in house.

Simplicity is always harder than it looks, and the Escala's exterior and interior lines took a lot of effort to achieve. One major evolution for the interior is the adoption of curved OLED displays, which permit the screens to float and become part of the design instead of needing to be designed around. Kraska excitedly notes that "The OLEDs afford this flexibility and shape for us… designer freedom, and it is like heaven." They allow the displays to be wrapped in leather, even embossed with the Cadillac crest—a nice touch. "Luxury doesn't have to shout or scream, it can whisper," she notes.

Cadilla Goddess

The displays (smaller versions of which appear on the rear of the front seats for back seat passengers) provide insight into how the brand is thinking about information design and user experience. The Cadillac Goddess, designed by William Schnell in 1930, debuted as an elegant radiator cap. After a lengthy pause she's back, this time etched into the glass in the controller that operates the car's information and entertainment systems.

Read the full story—including more about the modeling, interior, material choices and assembly—on designing the Cadillac's Escala on Cool Hunting.