We were blown away when we first saw Bruce Shapiro's incredible sand-drawing machines, which use hidden magnets and a steel ball to "draw." Originally designed as art installations, Shapiro is now offering them for sale as tables on Kickstarter. Imagine seeing this every day in your own home:

Shapiro's offering his Sisyphus line in three different sizes: A two-foot-diameter endtable, and three- and four-foot coffee tables. What's interesting is that these designs have no off-switch, but draws continuously.

The motors are controlled by a small Raspberry Pi computer which plays a set of path files, much like a music player plays an mp3 file. Sisyphus has no on/off switch; you simply plug it in and it automatically calibrates itself, loads a default playlist of paths, and begins playing. You can control playback – choosing favorite tracks or playlists – speed of play, and table-lighting from a mobile app or by using any browser to connect to Sisyphus with WiFi.

Shapiro explains where the "playlist" analogy comes from, while revealing that end users can create their own patterns:

[I] view Sisyphus as more than a kinetic art piece: it is an instrument. As a musical instrument plays songs, Sisyphus plays paths. My goal with this Kickstarter is to get Sisyphus into people's homes for them to enjoy as both furniture and art, but also, to inspire a community of composers to write "music" for it.

At press time there was 17 days left to pledge, and Shapiro was up to $1.2 million on a $50,000 goal.

The tables are surprisingly inexpensive, considering what they're capable of. While the cheapest early-bird specials are all gone, buyers can pay in the $700 to $1,100 range to snag the remaining ones.

Graphic Designer- New Product Development Astor Chocolate is a premier chocolate manufacturer, with a foundation of quality based on three core strengths – Innovation, Creativity and Dedication. Our goal is to provide our customers with products of unparalleled quality, leaving a lasting impression of distinction. This can only happen with a strong team of professionals leading the way in an energetic goal oriented atmosphere.

It's every pizza lover's dream to have a wood-fired brick oven in their kitchen. So far Jimmy Kimmel's the only guy I've heard of to install one. He's got the money to do that. Most of us don't.

A team of designers in Slovenia looked at pizza-making as a problem they could solve with intelligent design. First off, the wood-fired brick ovens that self-respecting NYC pizzerias all have are extremely resource-intensive. Between the bricks and the wood that you shovel into the thing, there's a lot of wasted energy. So the designers of Ironate opted instead for high-carbon steel and a much-smaller footprint. Here's what they came up with:

I love the simplicity of the design. I was also interested to see that they're producing it locally to them, rather than farming it out to China. Here's why, according to them:

First of all, the price wouldn't be much lower [if we manufactured in China]. We are proud of the design we made and materials we chose, we don't want to compromise. If we wanted to make IRONATE in China, we would have to spend a lot of time and money on quality control. Also, the transport from far east is expensive and takes a lot of time.

The other reason is much simpler and it doesn't have to do with business. We just love making stuff. We proudly dig in and get our hands dirty, that's what drives us. We will automate some processes when the time comes. But we are committed to keep the production as close to our home town as possible.

The $129 object has proven to be a hit, with $62,000 pledged at press time on a $20,000 goal. Pizza lovers have got 20 days left to pledge. The early birds start shipping next month, but those are all gone; the rest of you will have to wait until March of next year.

This is a project whose concept is meritorious enough to look at, but problematic enough that we should talk about it. Deskbloks are a system of technology-embedded oak squares which end users are meant to assemble together into a desk. There are five varieties of these blocks, as seen below:

The idea is that the user orders the blocks they want, then assembles the desk in a size and configuration of their choosing. Okay, that sounds nifty enough, but what will the actual UX be like? This is where I have my doubts.

First off, the key benefit of the concept appears to be that it tackles cable management. 

The legs are even hollow, allowing one to route cables through them. 

But I'm not sure that I want to plug anything into the front or side edge of my desk (and certainly not the rear). Perhaps this is particular to me, but I have a wide desk with work taking up the full width of it, and I roll my chair left or right to address different areas at different times. Having cables sticking out of the front would get in the way for me, and I do not have access to my desk's sides.

I find the headphone jack/speaker modules to be the most puzzling: Who wants to crawl under the desk to plug a jack in? Nor can I see any advantage in floor-facing speakers.

The joinery method also seems problematic. The blocks appear to be user-joined with mending plates, only, on the undersides. And the blocks are made from oak to boot. This doesn't seem like a structurally-sound way to support a heavy horizontal surface, and I have little faith that your average consumer—they who apparently have trouble assembling Ikea furniture—will be able to pull this off.

The development team is trying to get the project funded on IndieGogo. But while I laud their honesty, I do find their production woes troubling:

The process is expensive because we need to make 10-20 bloks in order to get just 1 perfect bloks. If the campaign proves to be a success, we'll be able to optimize the production and create more bloks more easily.

Starting off with a part rejection rate of 90%-95% just does not sound promising to me.

Lastly, I think that the buying process also needs to be thought through. The average consumer will probably need an online configurator, allowing them to create different assemblies while it spits out final dimensions and prices.

I know it sounds like I'm crapping all over this project, but that's not my intent; I think the concept has some merit, but needs several rounds of really thoughtful iterations. This seems like the kind of idea that might be presented at one of those Ikea design labs, and might start to hit its stride in the fourth or fifth round of development.

So, if you were part of this development team, what changes would you make? For starters, I'd say the oak has to go in favor of an engineered wood. I'm all for natural wood desks, but not when there are multiple components meant to be fit together; the problems created by any wood movement or warping might prove insurmountable.

Your thoughts?

Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller, Generation 2 uses Wi-Fi and local weather data so you never water when it rains – it makes running your sprinklers easy and convenient while saving you water and money. Generation 2 builds on Generation 1’s benefits by making the device easier to install and test, easier to connect to the user’s network, and more convenient by providing manual controls and an outside mounting kit – all based on customer feedback.

The 2016 Buckminster Fuller Challenge has officially come to a close after months of the top full-system design projects competing for $100,000 to support the development of their strategies. Finalists proposed thoughtful projects ranging from solutions to over populated cemeteries to better designs for harvesting water—it's a wonder the panelists could come to a final decision.

The Rainforest Solutions Project ended up taking the win thanks to their thorough infrastructure plan to save the Great Bear Rainforests in British Columbia. Designed as a collaboration between the three organizations, Greenspace, Sierra Club BC and Stand (formerly Forest Ethics), The Rainforest Solutions Project aims to bring the government, environmentalists and logging companies together to conserve one of the largest rainforests on the planet. That's no easy task, considering those three parties don't always have the same needs.

However, by implementing ecosystem-based management—the project's legal and policy framework for the collaboration—The Rainforest Solutions Project supports the conversation around conservation through an open dialogue that tries to meet both human and ecological needs as best as possible.

"The Rainforest Solutions Project's cutting-edge work to collaboratively co-design Ecosystem Based Management in the Great Bear Rainforest has resulted in a 15-million acre case study for the paradigm shift required to concurrently respect indigenous rights and conserve the Earth's lungs, for species, culture and climate, now and for future generations."

We look forward to hearing more success stories from The Rainforest Solutions Project and next year'sBFI Challenge winner. 

Make sure to check out past BFI Challenge winners that are solving some of the world's most pressing problems here, here and here.

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.

The Un-Silicon Valley Way to Make It as a Start-Up

Doug Chayka

It's pretty funny that we live in a world where we must remind ourselves you don't have to follow the exaggerated rituals of a venture capitalist-run startup in order to run a wildly successful business, but here we are people! As noted in the article,"'One of the problems with raising money is it teaches you bad habits from the start,' said Jason Fried, the co-founder of the software company Basecamp...But if companies are forced to generate revenue from the beginning, 'what you get really good at is making money,' Mr. Fried said. 'And that's a much better habit for a business to work on early on, to survive on their own rather than be dependent on money people.'"

—Allison Fonder, community manager

The Wood Man

This week I'm reading an article about the current state of American craftsmanship, written by furniture maker David Stine. His first two paragraphs sucked me in:

I don't know what bothered me more: the hipster wanna-be furniture "artisans," with their designer jeans cuffed just so, their carefully scuffed leather boots, their $300 flannel shirts, and their perfectly manscaped beards, or the corporation selling giant dining tables made with "sustainably harvested wood from Brazil and Indonesia." I hated them both, and they were book-ending my booth at the Architectural Digest Show in New York.

As a furniture maker, I do a lot of art, design, and trade shows. And for the past few years, I've seen a tremendous number of independent furniture makers who are more interested in looking the part than in crafting fine furniture. With imprimaturs like "Made in Brooklyn," they sell a good story, but not necessarily a good product.

—Rain Noe, senior editor

I Went to My Own Digital Funeral

After Dana Cho's talk at our conference last week, I was left with all kinds of thoughts related to technology and death—the conversation is an important one that can be taken in many different directions. This article and first-person narrative touches on the idea that when we pass away, people will remember us, in part, by our digital footprint. When we're alive, people know us in person and can distinguish us from our digital personalities—we all know they're two separate identities. However, when we pass away, after awhile the face-to-face interactions we had with people will fade away and those tweets about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie will be all that's left of us. How do you want to be remembered?

—Emily Engle, editorial assistant

As with NYC's ICFF and Milan's Salone del Mobile, the tentpole events of London Design Festival are predominantly trade-facing affairs. Whereaas 100% Design caters to interior designers and architects, designjunction balances contract with the indie, up-and-comer spirit of Shoreditch. Meanwhile, the nooks and crannies of South Kensington — known as Brompton Design District— and Clerkenwell were well worth exploring, including gems from the London design galleries, showrooms, and pop-up exhibitions alike.

From the buzzworthy Martino Gamper exhibition at SEE••DS to Jasper Morrison at the new Tate Modern to RCA's service-oriented #liveinclusive show, LDF2016 presented the depth and breadth of contemporary design in London.

____

Full London Design Festival 2016 coverage:

Map Presents the Industrial Design Process

Partake in Particle Particular

COMP's Parquet Shelving System

Installation View

Tord Boontje's Futuristic Funhouse of Electro Craft

Seeds of Doubt: "No Ordinary Love"

Gallery - Keep Calm and Carry on: Shoreditch and London Design Fair

(It's also worth mentioning that a few LDF sites are regrettably absent from the galleries: As the center of gravity of the Brompton Design District, the V&A hosted several presentations and a robust schedule of talks and tours, while large-scale outdoor installations are intended to engage the general public. Like the Serpentine Pavilion in Hyde Park, the LDF Landmark Projects — “The Smile” by Alison Brooks Architects, on view until October 12, and the MINI Living “Your Side of Town” forest installations by Asif Khan— are highly visible attractions.)

Designjunction: The Cubitt House

LDF2016 was the occasion for designjunction's move to its new permanent home at King's Cross Creative Quarter.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

Designjunction: Cubitt House

The main hall was outfitted with a custom façade by London-based Satellite Architects in collaboration with Icons of Denmark, featuring Peter J. Lassen's modular GRID System.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

Designjunction: TON

The Chair Leaf, designed by Italian studio e-ggs for TON.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

Designjunction: Noemi Saga Atelier & "Parquet" by COMP

Brazil's Noemi Saga and Bermondsey-based COMP offered different takes on wooden furniture.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

Designjunction: "Parquet" by COMP

Cemal Okten and Martin Price launched the "Parquet" shelving system at designjunction.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

Designjunction: "Parquet" by COMP (detail view)

We were impressed by the elegant attachment system; see more here.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

Designjunction: Modus presents "Who's Casper?"

Longtime exhibitorsModus invited 16 designers to interpret the Michael Sodeau-designed Casper Stool for a charity auction to benefit refugees in partnership with NGO Movement on the Ground.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

Designjunction: Johnston Twitter Machine by Florian Dussopt

Transport for London celebrated the centennial of its iconic Johnston Typeface with a pop-up exhibition. Among the bespoke projects to mark the occasion, TfL and KK Outlet commissioned an interactive piece by Florian Dussopt.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

Designjunction: Johnston Twitter Machine by Florian Dussopt

Known as #inspiredby, the machine "printed" Tweets from visitors near and far.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

Central Saint Martins presents "Brain Waves"

The design school's well-curated graduation exhibition was a highlight of LDF2016. Check out the full coverage here.

Photo credit: Ray Hu

$40 Emergency Workbench With Screwless Vise

Izzy Swan had to evacuate with his family due to Hurricane Matthew. Now staying with relatives further inland, he uses the opportunity to build a very cool "emergency workbench"—think zombie apocalypse where you have no access to power—and adds a very clever low-tech vise to it:

Feedback Needed for "Super Fast Homemade Quick Vise"

Prior to evacuating, Swan discusses some ergonomic improvements he plans to make to his DIY quick vise, and solicits viewer feedback on whether to include or jettison one of the vise's unique features:

Vacuum Hold-Down Table

Frank Howarth rigs up a vacuum-powered hold-down table for his CNC machine so that his workpieces can be securely held without clamps, allowing the router to do its thing with a clear path:

Lawn Tractor Trailer Build

Who knew Matthias Wandel has a freaking plasma cutter pantograph? This week Wandel departs from his go-to material of wood, cutting and welding up a small trailer for his lawn tractor:

$16 Twin Screw Vise

Jay Bates demonstrates how to easily make a twin-screw vise using inexpensive pipe clamps for the hardware:

$600 Bosch Glide vs. $1,500 Festool Kapex

This is a great tool comparison. The Wood Whisperer provides an even-handed comparison of various operations on both miter saws, and has a designer's eye for highlighting ergonomic differences:

One From the Archives: Walnut File Drawers

Jimmy DiResta creates some handsome file drawers out of walnut and walnut-veneered plywood. Check out his lengthwise take on splined miters and the crazy-looking sanding contraption he uses:

It's no secret that Core77 throws the best design party of the year. For over 20 years, Core77 has been serving the design community online and our annual Core77 conference is an opportunity to bring the pages of Core77 to life through focused programming and a dialogue about the most urgent issues facing design practitioners Here/Now.

The 2016 Core77 Conference on design-led co-creation focused on three main themes—storytelling, human-centered design in the age of technology and lessons from startup culture—to explore the unique ways that designers are positioned to lead interdisciplinary teams to success. Even if you weren't able to attend this year's event, we've rounded up some key takeaways from this year's roster of speakers for your pleasure. 

WORK WITH PURPOSE

"Pursue something so important that even if you fail the world is better off with you having tried." - Dana Cho, Managing Director, IDEO

Yoko Sen's "Sound Will" seeks to neutralize the aggressive sounds of hospital settings.

There is such a thing as a good death. The designers at IDEO recently embarked on an exploratory project to reimagine the end of life experience through their online, collaborative platform OpenIDEO. Dana Cho's talk reminded us that no matter what the challenge might be, encouragement and wisdom can come from unlikely places and that the design process itself can be as transformative as the final product. Read more about Designing for Death in a conversation between Dana Cho and Dr. BJ Miller.

"Some free advice: design and build products that matter." - Shana Dressler, Executive Director, 30 Weeks

The road of entrepreneurship is long and arduous but designers might be uniquely positioned to not only survive the journey but flourish post-launch. The 30 Weeks program was founded to incubate designers as they move from idea to launch and within just two years, 54 designers from 22 countries have received over $4 million in investment. Shana Dressler's advice to design and build products that matter is sage advice for not only potential founders but for all designers. Read more about 30 Weeks in this case study with one of the program participants.

BUILD PLATFORMS NOT PRODUCTS

"Agile Product Development means designing a product as a service." - Paul Sohi, Product Designer, Autodesk

As a product designer for a company that makes tools for designers, Paul Sohi is privy to a lot of interesting insights on the ways that designers are working now and more importantly, a person who actually shapes the ways that designers might work in the future. With his focus on digital fabrication and the ways that it is enabling new ways of making, Sohi is an evangelist for agile, circular, product development to create products as a service. This approach, Sohi argues, increases the lifetime value of that product.

"Be designers of mass communication, rather than designers of mass production." - SWINE

The design and research practice of SWINE, a London-based collaboration between architect Azusa Murakami and artist Alexander Groves, highlights the ways that design can expand beyond the traditional boundaries of product. Their recent work is as much about creating fictional new worlds through design films as it is about materializing objects from that world to create new narratives and communicate new ways of working. Read more about Studio SWINE's process here.

"Not creating an artifact or solution but a platform from which solutions can emerge." - Jamer Hunt, Associate Professor, Parsons School of Design

In his opening keynote, Jamer Hunt proposed a new perspective on a systems-based approach to social innovation by questioning the efficacy of current top-down or bottom-up models. Noting that systems at different scales operate in unfamiliar and unpredictable ways, Hunt argued for designers to focus on creating open platforms that can catalyze collaboration from diverse stakeholders.

TEAM WORK MAKES THE DREAM WORK

"Human centered design is not enough. We need inclusivity and equality of ideation and activation." - Antionette Carroll, Founder, Creative Reaction Lab

Similarly, design activist Antoinette D. Carroll proposed a new rubric for measuring success and impact, an approach she calls "The Table"—identifying the diverse stakeholders needed to create the most impactful, effective approach to some of the most challenging and layered social problems facing our communities today. Carroll's Table includes:  

+ Social and Civic Sector - Macro issue experts 
+ Business Sector - Experts at Scaling
+ Designers - Experts at Problem Solving
+ Community Members - Living Experts

Each of the four sectors represents a critical part of the equation needed to propose and enact solutions for social impact.

"We need to allow people to share their emotions through the things they have created. Co-creation is about enabling people to achieve greater than they could do alone." - Kudo Tsunoda, Vice President, Microsoft

Sharing his team's approach to design research, Kudo Tsunoda took inspiration from actor Nic Cage and employed the "Method Acting" approach, taking his team to a boxing gym to prepare to design a boxing game and to a ski slope for a ski experience. This approach enabled designers to connect with the human experience, something that Tsunoda identified as powerful because of the way that experiences connect people to one another.

"Hybridization of different methods and solutions is the core to designing for refugees." - Amro Sallam, Executive Director, Architects for Society

And with these thoughts, Sallam underscored the importance of designing for those who need it most—displaced peoples, many who are fleeing terrifying circumstances both environmental and political. Using the lessons learned from designing the rapidly deployable, self-constructed HEX house for refugees, the collective of architects that form Architects for Society proposed new housing solutions for low-income families in urban environments.

Even if you missed out on this year's fantastic conference, no worries! We'll see you next year in Chicago!!

SAVE THE DATE! The next Core77 Conference will take place in Chicago, October 2017!

Building a MakerSpace in Your Home, Part 1

Linn from Darbin Orvar tackles a massive project: Building a makerspace in an unused room in her house. Here, in Part 1, she lays out her plan and starts by creating storage cubbies and processing some maple lumber to create the countertop:

Everything You Need to Know About Japanese Hand Saws

Even if you already use Japanese hand saws, this is a good watch—the Samurai Carpenter explains details about their design and construction that you may not have known. And for the beginner who's curious about these saws, this is a great place to start:

Add Custom Horn Sounds to Any Car

This is pretty fun: Bob Clagett figures out how to rig up a soundboard in his car, enabling him to produce sound effects on demand:

The Artisanal Flyswatter

What started out as a joke turned into a project too challenging to turn down. Tasked with creating a hardwood flyswatter—which would be impossible, as it has to be thin and whippy enough to work, yet not so thin that it breaks. Shannon Rogers figures out how to do it, using some clever techniques and careful material selection:

Cat Laser Tower

La Fabrique DIY creates a cool remote-controlled laser mount to keep their new kitty occupied:

Gravity-Assisted Vertical Chainsaw Mill

John Heisz creates a sort of vertical guide rail for a chainsaw, allowing gravity to give him an assist with turning logs into boards:

Random Orbit Sander Holder

A simple but highly useful project: Nick Ferry cranks out a bench-mounted holder for his palm sander. (I'm envious that he's got an air-driven one, I've always been curious about those.)

Mason jars are hugely popular and relatively timeless, but their uses are limited. A2 developed dozens of inexpensive snap-in attachments that transform existing mason jars into useful products. From citrus juicers to drink infusers, the mason jar finally gets a colorful, much needed update.

I couldn't guess what this thing was by the CAD drawing, and I got a kick out of the answer. This little device totally seems like something cooked up by a quirky product designer in Japan:

If the accent didn't tip you off, the Fold-Ease actually comes from the UK, and even has an "As Seen on the BBC" provenance (it was on "Dragon's Den.") As silly as it might seem to those of us who don't fold paper all day long, it is an intelligent design that solves a problem, and the little fingernail slit is a nice touch. They run £3.99 for a two-pack.

Large-scale, flashy, design-ey projects often get all of the glory. But I like the idea of inventors developing highly specific, inexpensive little products like this that improve the end user's life in some small way.

IDSA's third annual Medical Design Conference: From Volume to Value will be held Nov. 11–12, 2016 at the new University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center's Mission Bay Conference Center. The design industry and the frontlines of the medical field are teaming up to provide insights into delivering improved healthcare value. Registration is open online through Nov. 7; then, onsite.

The conference is co-chaired by Bill Evans, IDSA, SVP, Innovation, Bridge Design, a Ximedica company—and Aenor Sawyer, MD, of UCSF's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery.

Significant challenges face both the design and medical fields as they work to address needed improvements in healthcare value. Improving quality of care while lowering costs seems contradictory and to date has been unattainable. Tackling this challenge will require new models of collaboration across the design and healthcare fields. The conference, co-hosted by IDSA and UCSF's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, provides the opportunity to learn firsthand about such models and create new collaborations.

Held at UCSF—a national leader in health tech innovation—this event brings together designers, health care providers, researchers and innovators to explore the development of transformative solutions.

Valuable takeaways from the IDSA Medical Design Conference 2016 include an understanding of challenges unique to designing in healthcare and how they can be addressed; insights on the need for collaboration between the design and healthcare fields, including concerns and successful models; exposure to new perspectives and actionable methodologies for innovation in healthcare; and new network connections with potential collaborators from healthcare, design, innovation, and related fields from the San Francisco Bay Area and from wider professions.

"It's an exciting time to be a designer in healthcare; our profession will play a pivotal role," says Evans. "We are poised to use design to improve physical devices and to impact the digital, services and delivery ecosystems that surround such devices as we embrace the connected health revolution sweeping through our industry."

The dialogue is shifting from driving more use and better usability of the products and experiences designed—to how to create more meaningful, broader solutions to truly transform the healthcare system From Volume to Value.

"Recognizing that no one entity—patient, provider, payer or innovator—can address the complete value loop, the IDSA Medical Design Conference will draw representatives from the entire ecosystem to foster relevant dialogue and shared learnings," Evans explains.

Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, of Neuroscape, is scheduled to deliver an inspirational keynote presentation. His groundbreaking discoveries in neuroscience—profiled in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and on NBC, CNN, PBS and NPR—exemplify the power of cross-sector initiatives by combining design, healthcare, technology and research.

Another keynote address is from Roy Smythe, MD, of Valence Health, on "Healthcare's New Culture Code." "What is your first memory of healthcare?" asks Smythe. "For most of us, that question conjures images of white coats, needles and pain. However, that is actually not our first experience. A future of healthcare environmental design based on a new "culture code"—one generated by our earliest memories of healthcare—could revolutionize how we experience medicine."

Speakers are set from LUNAR of McKinsey & Company; IDEO; Johnson & Johnson; Cedars-Sinai; BlackHägen Design; AppliedVR; Center for Care Innovations; Metaphase Design Group; Cannuflow; Halyard Health; HomeHero; HS Design; JeffDESIGN; Medtronic; NEA Healthcare Team; PurpleBinder; RubiconMD; St. Michael's Hospital; 3rd Stone Design; Stryker; Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals; Transcendent Endeavors; West County Health Centers; Ximedica; and more. Experts from UCSF; Stanford University; Auburn University; Georgia Institute of Technology; University of Cincinnati; University of Toronto; and other leading higher education institutions also will take the stage.

"There's no better place to meet thought leaders," declares speaker Bryce Rutter, PhD, IDSA, of Metaphase in a new video. "It's the best dollar-for-dollar investment you can make." See why.

Trending topics range from robotic-assisted surgery, doctor-designer relationships and global health product design to the healthcare business environment, medical technologies, biodesign innovation and more, along with thought-provoking, interactive panels such as "The Future of Devices is not Devices," "Designers on the Future of Design in Healthcare" and "Designing a Culture of Safety."

See the complete schedule. Book your stay and take in the sights of San Francisco. Follow the journey on #IDSAMedical on Twitter; Industrial Designers Society of America on Facebook and LinkedIn; and @IDSAdesign on Instagram.

Sponsors, media partners and exhibitors include Johnson & Johnson; Stryker; Ximedica; Agora; AllJack; BlackHägen Design; Control Plastics and Metals; Core77; Freetech Plastics; GCX Mounting Solutions; KeyShot; Ray Products; and Society of Plastics Engineers. For information on more opportunities, contact KatrinaK@idsa.org.  

Here's a good example of an everyday object with a small, thoughtful modification that improves the end user's experience. Native Union's Anchor Cable has a weighted Dungeons-and-Dragons-looking icosahedron surrounding the braided, non-tangle cable.

The non-slip, silicone-coated weight thus keeps the cable parked, removing the minor daily hassle of fishing for the thing when it slips off the edge of your desk. And while it may not be obvious from the photos, the weight can be slid along the cable, allowing the end user to place it where they like it.

It's a bit pricey at 35 bucks, but I'm thinking of picking one up just to support this kind of attention to detail.

It's been a bit of an ugly news cycle this week. Let's look at some gorgeous works of craft and science, shall we? If you don't frequent Boston museums or Ivy League special collections you might not have heard of the Harvard Glass Flowers, but you should. 

Harvard University's Museum of Natural History has an enormous collection of glass flowers and plants, which reopened earlier this year after a good deal of diligent and difficult restoration work. The collection is comprised of hyper realistic scientific models of plants, flowers, roots, seeds, and more, all made by hand over 100 years ago. 

The flowers were created by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, a German father and son team with family roots in fine jewelry and glasswork as far back as the fifteenth century. The botanical works were commissioned in 1886 by George Lincoln Goodale, the first director of Harvard's Botanical Museum, in order to aid study of the burgeoning field. 

In an era of booming discovery and taxonomy, and before affordable photography, most botanically inclined students and scientists didn't have access to accurate drawings or models of plants outside their own region. And the Northeast winter is particularly unfriendly to fragile specimens. In glass form, exotic discoveries and delicate inner workings were preserved in lifelike detail that papier mâché models couldn't hope to copy. 

Perhaps surprisingly, the Blaschkas used lampworking (or 'flameworking') glass techniques that have barely changed in the 130 years since. Just pigmented glass rods, powdered colors, some tongs and tweezers, and a very hot flame. These stunningly realistic botanical models were created with tools nearly identical to the ones behind your college roommate's collection of "art" bongs. 

This level of craft mastery and representation was less rare in an era without instantaneous access to nuanced visual references and information. But even now, with technologically assisted production and an amount of reference material unfathomable to human brains, the craftsmanship involved is special. The textures, colors and minute attention to detail are incredible. 

Before embarking on this heap of delicate flowers, the Blaschkas gained renown for their work on glass eyes and equally impressive models of fish and invertibrate sea creatures. They eventually caught the eye of Prince Camil de Rohan, currently ruling over part of Bohemia, and through his patronage they gained access to his incredibly stocked greenouses. The father and son's scientific replicas of the exotic royal plants were displayed as art by the nobility, and their fame crossed the ocean to Harvard.

Supported by former student Mary Lee Ware and her mother Mrs. Elizabeth C. Ware, Harvard's Botanical Museum director opened a commission with the Blaschkas. Over the course of the next several decades, that commissioned project would eventually grow to include around 3,000 models of 847 species. 

The Wares donated the collection to the Botanical Museum in memory of Dr. Charles Eliot Ware, and it has remained an enormous attraction ever since. 

This spring it reopened after meticulous restoration and re-design of the permanent exhibit. Here's a bit on the BTS work that the curatorial and restoration teams had in front of them with this extra delicate collection.

IBM Design’s mission is simple: put the user at the center of our products. If you are a passionate problem-solver, able to empathize with users and turn that empathy into design insight, we want you to join us in creating exceptional experiences that span our vast product portfolio.

The Dieline is looking for a Lead Editor with a background in design to strategically create and manage day-to-day editorial content for TheDieline.com. We are looking for somebody who will work closely with the Editor-in-chief to reimagine and establish a fresh editorial vision, create and execute and execute an editorial plan, write and edit content, manage day-to-day publishing logistics, ensure cohesiveness, and uphold the high level of quality that we are known for.

Yeah, so this is crazy: Finland-based Cajo Technologies has figured out how to use a laser to burn colors into different materials. "Our patented technology creates extremely precise, permanent and practically everlasting marking or colour patterning on almost any material without additives or pigments," the company writes.

Here's a quick video of the laser laying down red:

It's tough to tell with the lousy videography, but in this second video the finished red appears to even be gradated:

Like you, I'm wondering how the heck this works--and the company ain't saying. All they'll reveal is that

[Our] color patterning and marking method is based on a unique innovative application of the traditional laser beam. [It] alters the surface structure of the material, and no additives or pigments are needed. The method allows for extremely precise, permanent and practically everlasting colour patterning on almost all materials.

Though the company states that they can do metal or plastic, all of the colored samples shown by the company appear to be on stainless steel.

Lastly, here's a sample of some of their other, non-color applications:

Christian Reed is an Army veteran and a mechanical engineer out of MIT. While on deployment, he became "frustrated with available compact multi-tools." As he explains:

When wearing gloves and performing other tasks simultaneously, traditional multi-tools were hard to use and operate. Removing my gloves, reaching into a buttoned pocket, or not having a good place to attach it to for easy access summarizes my experience with compact multi-tools I had and tried to use.

Reed set about designing a hyperfunctional multitool that could be operated singlehandedly and with gloves on, and which would also clip onto the user when not in use, so as to always be within reach. Here's what he came up with, called the GRIPsher:

The amount of thought and engineering that went into this is crazy. Here's a rundown of the features:

And here's how that Hexgrip system works:

The applications are manifold, to say the least:

The GRIPsher has been successfully Kickstarted, with $19,000 in pledges on a $10,000 goal at press time. There are still 47 days left to get in on it, with the lowest-priced model available running $35. As mentioned in the video, those willing to pony up for a pricier model ($60) are then subsidizing a second GRIPsher that will be given for free to a service member.

NOTE: This project is not endorsed, sponsored, or supported by the Department of Defense, its subsidiaries, or any affiliated United States Government Agencies. This is a program run by Outsmarting Technologies LLC, a for profit company, looking to help do something nice for service members who rarely get cool things given to them for free.