3M is looking for a Lead Industrial Designer for our Consumer Business Group to enhance the design function at the 3M Design Center, located in St. Paul, MN.? At 3M, you can apply your talent in bold ways that matter. 3M is driving creativity and design as a competitive platform for innovation and brand globally to enhance design-driven solutions for people and the world. We are looking for a Lead Industrial Designer for our Consumer Business Group to enhance the design function at the 3M Design Center, located in St. Paul, MN.

As the Northwest is menaced by a drippy attempt at a hurricane, I'm finally starting to understand sauna culture. Who cares that nature wants to drown or freeze you if you have a hot box to sit in? But Oregon isn't a sauna culture, so we're doing other things storm-tossed people do to survive: lighting candles and drinking. If you've ever studied a piece of nice glassware in candlelight, you've probably wondered how the thing got to be so... sparkly. The answer is surprisingly un-simple. Here are a few insights into the making of cut crystal and nice barware that I've gathered whenever my power comes back on.

"Crystal"—more literally known as Lead Glass—is over 1000 years old, and cut crystal is close behind. Crystal differs from standard glass in a few key ways, none totally doctrinal but all functionally important. Where a common drinking glass is largely composed of silica + sodium oxide + calcium oxide, "crystal" adds lead. This has been seen from Venice to the Czech Republic, ancient Rome to Edo era Japan. Unsurprisingly, different countries and practices differ on the minimum lead content that earns a "crystal" classification—as low as 2% by weight in the States and twelve times that in Europe. Crystal drinkware generally contains 18-35% lead, and it goes even higher if the piece isn't for mouth use... but I'm not drinking out of crystal statues today, so we'll ignore those. 

Czech style faceting

Overall, lead oxide and antimony are added in significant amounts because they allow a softer glass body, which makes deft shaping and cutting less difficult and less likely to blind the artisans with brittle chips. They also increase material clarity and heighten refraction of light, which is an important feature in good glassware that becomes amplified with facet cutting. Higher lead content also reduces viscosity, making the material more elastic and easier to work with at lower temperatures than standard glass. The possibility of lower working temps also means ability to eliminate air bubbles and other imperfections while melting and forming, which has helped build crystal's reputation as a flawless and pristine material. 

To make the crystal itself, the silica, antimony, lead oxide and any other chemical variants are melted together over the course of a day. Broken pieces of crystal are often blended in to help smooth the consistency and reduce waste. Once melted, the glass is kept temperature controlled in batches that correspond to output. 

That brings us to the second key component of fine drinkin' crystal—it's almost never produced strictly by mold. Despite using molds for generic glass production for centuries, and tons of technological advances in the last 50 years alone, crystal is traditionally hand crafted, and most mid- to high-end companies still hand blow their pieces. Nearly each piece still passes through the hands of several skilled blowers and formers. This is where it starts to get fancy and expensive.

Whether stemware or a stouter cup, a crystal glass will usually start as a taffy-like blob daubed around the end of a blowing tube. It's inflated carefully, spun and shaped to spec inside a custom wooden mould, aided by a team of glass technicians. 

After the piece is blown, molded, hand formed, and its tube is removed, it is ready to be cleaned and patterned. Even this step is largely done by humans, cleaned individually and marked freehand by craftsmen with an intimate knowledge and eye for the patterns used. The marking is sometimes a direct representation of cuts to be made, and sometimes it's a guiding framework for more delicate and organic designs. 

The cutting is the hardest thing to understand, from a modern production standpoint. Despite the prevalence of lasers, automation and etching fluids, most crystal companies still use just two kinds of cut, applied by hand with simple rotary diamond cutters. At heart, cut designs are all variations on a flat facet or a beveled cut, created by either round or angled cutters. Much like lapidary and gem cutting work, the enormous diversity of crystal patterns boils down to the size of the tools and the skilled "vocabulary" of the craftspeople using them. 

The Waterford Company uses a mix of techniques at its famous Irish factory. In the tourist video above you can get a sense of the labor intensive blowing, and improbably steady hands, behind their perfect looking glass. You can also get a gander at irrationally patient craftspeople who can keep focus on their work while entertaining smalltalk from friendly Canadians.

Satsuma Kiriko pattern

Edo Kiriko pattern

Japanese cut crystal also dates back several hundred years, but some of the most striking and lasting styles became famous during the Edo period of the 1800s. Delicate cups for tea and sake feature similar bevel and groove type cutting with a distinctive set of tonal patterns that pull from textile design and natural motifs. 

This video shows the Edo era practice of two-color crystal cutting, called Kiriko or Satsuma Kiriko. The level of detail in this is… a bit boggling. The design is super nuanced, and you can start to forget that behind every cut is just one guy holding a glass bowl. 

This next video, the longest and most self-congratulatory I found, goes more in depth into Czech methods, both traditional and modern. Start at 2:25 for actual glass action. 

While cut crystal might seem like an over the top indulgence left over from a Hapsburgian era where wealth was hereditary and no one cared about drinking lead—cough—the practice is a little practical. Food and drink, particularly liquors and wines, are enjoyed with all the senses, and adding light and depth to the drink glass can heighten the drinker's awareness of the drink's colors and qualities. While it's not as literally impactful as a wine decanter, a cut crystal glass changes the perception of what's being enjoyed.

Common version of a Waterford design

Today a lot of standard barware copies traditional cut crystal patterns. Standard glass is often machine cut to pretty convincing effect. From faceted bases on tumblers to the simple "manly" Waterford grid used on rocks glasses, crystal designs are reproduced in standard glass using molds and forming. Generally, the nicer the quality of glass and the nicer the quality of the mold, the closer to "crystal" it'll look.

To see if the fancy set you picked up at Goodwill (or snuck out of your parents' prized liquor cabinet) has real crystal in it, look for extra sharp corners on the cuts and precise tight-radius definition of facets. Thanks to its lead, crystal is also comparatively heavy and gives a long ringing note when dinged by a fingernail or silverware. For comparison, your IKEA water cups give a thunkier standard glass tone, and cheaper glass throws a lot less light into and through your drink. 

Regardless of leadedness or cutting pedigree, a satisfying glass is a great companion. Stay safe and stay warm! 

Lots of designers want to change the world. Buckminster Fuller did, at least representationally, by conceiving the following image:

Might've taken your brain a second to recognize that particular chain of islands. Fuller's Dymaxion Air-Ocean World, as he called it, presented the world from a different perspective. Rather than separate continents, through Fuller's eyes we see "Earth as an archipelago absent of its territories." As Areaware explains,

Fuller felt that a world map was needed which highlights the relationships among all nations and cultures of the world, revealing what unites us rather than what separates us. In Fuller's own words, "the Dymaxion Map reveals a One-World Island in a One-World Ocean", helping us to view the world as one interdependent system.

It's telling that Fuller conceived of the Dymaxion Map in the early 1940s, in the midst of the globe-ravaging World War II. Life magazine first published it in 1943. Eleven years later, along with architect and collaborator Shoji Sadao, Fuller released a version projected onto an icosahedron.

Industrial designer Brendan Ravenhill has how revived this design for Areaware. Ravenhill's version comes printed on Tyvek and is embedded with magnets, so that one can choose to examine the map flat, or fold it up to form an icosahedral globe:

The $15 map (or $40 for all three colorways) is part of Areaware's 2016 Fall Collection.

This is the latest installment of our Core77 Questionnaire. Previously, we talked to Keetra Dean Dixon.

Name:Lidewij Edelkoort

Occupation: My main profession is forecasting the future, and from that vantage I do everything else. When I curate an exhibition, it's like a 3D trend forecast. When I work with students, I think about their future and how I should educate them accordingly. When I write, I write with a historic perspective but always about what will be the implementations in the future.

I'm also an educator. I was first head of a department then became chairwoman of the Design Academy in Eindhoven for ten years. I recently helped to establish a design school in Poland called School of Form, and now am working at The New School/Parsons as Dean of Hybrid Design Studies. I'm a publisher, a writer, an art director, and a curator, but again, all these functions relate back to my main interest.

Location: I live between New York and Paris, and from those two cities I travel the world.

Current projects: Organizing New York Textile Month, which opened the 1st of September. It's an open agenda in which many cultural institutions such as museums, retailers, ateliers, workshops, weaving centers, textile art centers, and so on, are participating. Every day there is something happening with textiles, and some days there are several events. The main purpose is to make the public aware of the importance of textiles—the variety, the many purposes, and the design component which is often not acknowledged. The idea is that it will recur every year, like Fashion Week.

People speak of fashion and design, but the people who design textiles are working long before the other creators. They have immense radars for the future, and know where to go with color, fiber, content, and how to contextualize our designs. It's a highly underrated part of our society. 

Tiffany Huang, Parsons. Part of Talent! an exhibition showcasing work from 8 design schools from Europe and the United States.

A big part of my business is to make books and to conceptualize trends—I just finished my trend book for Summer 2017 which is called Transformation. We're preparing a few exhibitions for this Fall and Spring '17. I've also been working on courses for the New School in New York. One of these courses is a hybrid study for first-year students. Every Monday they'll have a new member of faculty, and they'll be learning something different in a workshop environment. They'll study ten weeks on the body—What is the body? How does the body move? How does the body sing? How do I feed the body? How do I clothe the body? How does the body relate to time, space, objects?—ten weeks on space, and ten weeks on time. It's a curated program amongst the top of the faculty of Parsons in the New School. It's a very exciting new program, which will launch in fall 2017. 

We're also working towards new courses in textiles, because textiles is somewhat of an endangered species. It's a strange moment where it's both in decline, and there's new matter coming to the fore in hi-tech. We need to capture this moment with a hybrid approach, try to embed the hi-tech in slow craft, both major trends, and let them lift each other; bridge Silicon Valley and Hudson Valley.

Fashion designer Maria Cornejo for Knoll 

Mission: To share knowledge, insight, sentiments and feelings on what might happen in the future. Recently my work has become more political. I've written a manifesto called Anti_Fashion, which has been widely published and read. I'm becoming a researcher and a spokesperson for new ways of creating, new ways of distribution, new ways of a new economy that considers humans and the planet in new ways. 

The only way to curb this trend towards disaster is to reinvent virtually everything—education, distribution, the amount of things we make, consumption. There's enough data to show that we can do things in a different way, and that it is also financially possible. So that's my mission of the day.

When did you decide that you wanted to be a designer? First, I am not a designer but a forecaster! During my education at ArtEZ I discovered this skill. I would design or draw things, and they would be on the runway half a year, a year later. We would go to Paris to see the Saint Laurent show, and I would be dressed in the coat which was on the runway—things like that. The faculty and myself, we started to understand that it was really a talent, and so they started to educate me in that direction. Nobody really knew what that was at that time, until one day we had a lecture about styling offices, they existed in Paris, and it was then that I understood my role in life.

Education: I studied fashion and fashion design and illustration at ArtEZ Academy in Arnhem.

From Scraps: Fashion, Textiles and Creative Reuse at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.

First design job: Out of the academy, I went to work for a department store in the Netherlands. The Bloomingdale's of that period, so to speak. That was a very good school. In such an institution, you really learn the impact of choices and you really learn how something works from within. I still go back to some of that knowledge today. I was responsible for trends, for accessories and junior style and fashion . We had a lot of fun and we discovered very young, talented people. I gently forced them to buy Thierry Mugler and Claude Montana's first collections. It was that very heady period.

What was your big break? My life has been a series of breaks—I have breaks constantly. After every three or four years there seems to be another opening. Something happens and that brings me further—then another thing brings me on a side path—then something else. It's a constant discovery of new enterprises. For a while I had a salon, a kind of art gallery; I founded Heartwear, which is a non-profit that makes clothes and textiles in Africa; I started teaching; got to know design and became a curator. I bought a house; I moved. When I was twenty five, I went to Paris. When I was sixty five, I went to New York. It really never stops.

From Li Edelkoort's studio space in Paris. Photo by Thomas Straub.

Describe your workspace: I have several spaces where I work. They're mostly wood: wooden floors, wooden tables, contemporary lamps. Lighting is important. Then there's a lot of mess. Colors, textiles, photos, objects, materials, depending on the project I'm working on. Although I'm a double Virgo, I am a bit messy. Then the next day it's done, I clean up and I start again. But it's more like a home. Even my office in Paris, which is a big studio space, is filled with beautiful objects and carpets. It's not at all like an office.

What is your most important tool? My intuition. I recently wrote an article for the Van Alen Institute in New York, about instinct and intuition in design and architecture. While I was writing, I understood that my intuition is actually not even mine, that people's intuition is possibly an invisible link they have with the universe. We all share this holistic knowledge, and we all can tap into it, it's not exclusive. 

The finding of these ideas is a non-creative process; creativity starts with the way that you shape these ideas. I've learned to listen to my intuition so strongly that it's performing almost by itself. I can call on suggestions and answers at any moment with rare precision. Sometimes it's eerie, even for me.

We all share this holistic knowledge, and we all can tap into it, it's not exclusive.

What is the best part of your job? That it enables me to always move forward. I'm never stifled by the past. I love things from the past, but I use them to go on. I'm hopelessly curious, and that's very stimulating.

Blur sofa by Marc Thorpe for Moroso.

What is the worst part of your job? The stress. Deadlines, demands, the texts you have to write. I love writing, so I need time. The stress is the bad part, and the management—that's also not something I love. I'm happiest when I'm just doing my own work.

From Li Edelkoort's Paris studio. Photo by Thomas Straub.

What time do you get up and go to bed? I get up at six-thirty or seven. Sometimes even earlier after travel. I like the early mornings, especially in New York. In New York I wake up very early, from five to nine I do emails, talk to friends, and then I start the day. When I was young, I was a night person, but I have very much morphed into a day person. As a result, nights, I go to bed rather early, between eleven and twelve. And sometimes earlier just to catch up. I'm very careful about all of that. I cannot have nights and nights of going out.

How do you procrastinate? Cooking is a major hobby. Walking, occasionally shopping—real or online—swimming in summer, and reading.

What is your favorite productivity tip or trick? I find it very healthy to do several things at the same time. If you alternate, it's like taking a holiday from the other job. When you come back you have a very open, clear vision of what needs to be done.
Concentration is very vital. Once you do something, only do that. Don't answer phones, don't make meals, just focus. As a society, we're splintering our interests and occupations, so everything becomes very long, and difficult, and mixed.
It's quite amazing how much a person can do. You think that you're working hard, and then you discover that you can work even harder. I don't think that's always good, but you can, sometimes. Yet I can be very lazy too. I have these bouts of laziness, which I also think are important.

From Li Edelkoort's Paris studio. Photo by Thomas Straub.

What is the best-designed object in your home? My new cat, Zulu. She is a beautiful little leopard; a very rare race which stemmed from the leopard, but in miniature. It's crazy. I just got her, so I'm very happy.

If we're speaking about design design, it's very hard to say. Possibly a paper clip? Very ordinary things are sometimes amazingly well done.

Who is your design hero? I guess it has to be Issey Miyake because of the way he's designed his life and career path. He gave up his namesake company to start new projects. His latest brand is all about computerized origami folding used to make very abstract clothes; he's super involved with the creation of new matter. He now believes that the future will be made of paper, for instance. He's onto a new track again. Then there is his humor, and there is his lightness. He's a terrific leader—very much loved by his people.

What is the most important quality in a designer? Playfulness. Never let the job take you over, still keep on having these childish qualities of curiosity, of playing around, to keep yourself very fresh.

"Growing Tree" by Elodie Blanchard Studio

What is the most widespread misunderstanding about design or designers? Design has become a much better understood discipline over the last twenty years. Especially since the turn of the century there has been a real focus on design. There is still this misunderstanding that it could be art when it isn't, and because it's functional, it's banal. I think it still hasn't positioned itself, as a discipline, fully.
What is so interesting in design is that it is becoming much, much bigger as a field. We started with just thinking of it as modernist design, then it became also textile design, service design, narrative design, food design, the design of words. Now we have opened the discipline to so many other things. In the future I think it will also include movement and music. There will be a big melting together of all the disciplines into each. It's only getting more and more interesting.

What is exciting you in design right now? Many things. The continuation of the handmade (which I believe is going to be a permanent part of society) and the arrival of super hi-tech production processes. The robotization of making. The reinvention of mechanical making. Young designers are very interested in the process of making. They often reinvent, or invent new machines to do the work.
In the past, the machine was the enemy of the designer. The designer had to scale down projects to fit the machine; now a designer has an idea and wants the machine to fit him or her. They'll modify the machine, hijack or hack machine, completely transform it. I think three-dimensional printers which can print clay so it looks super handmade are very exciting. We live in a moment where the hand and the machine start to morph. The machine becomes almost like the prolongation of your hands, and designers are manipulating the machine themselves.

Enlighten is a student led project designed by five industrial design undergraduates at CPUT in South Africa. Enlighten addresses South Africa's current energy crises incalm manner, a manner which hopefully brings awareness to the user without causing interruptions or distractions from their everyday life.

With the rise in technology use, people's energy consumption is naturally increasing. Consumers need to know when their electronic devices are consuming energy. Appliances consume electricity on a daily basis whether they are on, off, idle or standing by. A substantial contributing factor to energy consumption is Phantom Load, a term used to describe the energy consumed by a device when it is not in active use but still plugged in.

Millions of cell phone users all over the globe consume phantom load on a daily basis, most without even being aware of it. A single device consuming phantom load may not be evident, but when millions of people neglect to disconnect their devices—which continue to consume energy whilst idle—substantial amounts of money is wasted on electricity we don't even know we're using.

Altor Locks launched earlier this year on a wave of crowdfunding, and after an unusually fast turnaround on early production, they're already out and about in the real world. The surprisingly light design clocks in at just 560 grams (1.2lbs), utilizing a blend of solid grade 5 titanium bars and a pretty fascinating 3 phase washer joint system, also made from grade 5 ti. 

The material is a great improvement on commonly used steels and ti due to its elasticity and durability against cutting and temperature shock. The lock itself consists of a 6 disc detainer with a pretty standard key and a sweet push button mechanism that lets you close the lock sans key.

Given their general similarity to the well-tested and hard to improve upon Abus folding locks, I was happy to reserve judgement or comment, but this design is a legitimately cool variation. The material choice and joint design is very carefully considered with concern for the most common methods of attack.

Altor Locks were tested against sawing and grinding, freezing, chiseling, large bolt cutters, and drill. 

The biggest appeal is their grade 5 material properties and these tight joints. The ti possesses lower thermal conductivity while maintaining standard stiffness and the tool-dulling properties that hardened steel dreams of. It's not commonly used because the material and tools for working it are expensive, but it's widely employed in aerospace and medical tech. 

The joints are patented, understandably, but their layering is intended to protect the binding pins from distortion or brittleness usually exploited by thieves.

Other perks include slim dimensions while folded, a simple bottle cage mount, and the ability to chain locks together for a 52 inch span. 

While the cost and design might raise eyes (it's fancier than most of the bikes they model it on), a folding ti lock adds flexibility and weight savings to an underpopulated market niche. 

Any favorite features? Barriers to trying one?

This is for those of you interested in learning to design and build furniture. Woodcraft's "California Dreaming" sweepstakes comes with a doozy of a grand prize: A $3,000 SawStop table saw, $1,000 in tools and accessories, and a slot in a three-day training session with Jory Brigham. (We previously featured his incredible career arc here.)

To be clear, Brigham's three-day design/build workshop isn't one-on-one. These are group sessions, and the winner will snag one of just eight available slots. However, they will fly you out to the class location—Brigham's shop in picturesque San Luis Obispo, California—round trip, and put you and a companion up, on-site, for four nights.

During the course, you'll make a custom piece of furniture, start to finish and yes, you'll get to take it home.

There's no cost to enter the sweepstakes. The deadline is November 30th and you can sign up here. Good luck!

A Netherlands-based outfit called Verhagen Leiden got their start 52 years ago providing industrial cleaning equipment to companies in the Benelux region. Well, apparently part of their clients' needs for keeping their operations tidy involves moving heavy things around to keep their lots organized. Some of these things can be really heavy, like 20-ton trailers.

The established way to move trailers is to have a licensed driver back his rig up to them, hook it up, and start burning diesel while zigzagging the trailer around the lot. Instead Verhagen Leiden developed this ingenious thing:

They call it the V-Move Trailer Mover XXL, which runs on an electric motor and battery power. What you can't see in the video is that the V-Mover comes with an emergency stop, a horn and some type of unspecified anti-tipping mechanism. Companies that use it don't need to tie up a driver when moving trailers—a single unlicensed employee can operate it. However, we assume they must still have a good grasp of the physics and geometry required to safely move a trailer around.

Via The Awesomer

Core Home is a global leader in manufacturing and importing exceptional housewares and home décor products. We are a New York based company and our factories have been delivering beautiful products at affordable prices to the US/Canadian and European markets for close to two decades. All of our products are made...

A Japanese company called YP System has developed a new type of surface processing technology for metal. Called Color CB, this proprietary plating technique adds a thin layer of ceramic to the surface of the part and can be imbued with color. Once the part is placed under stress, the finish will not flake off. Take a look:

YP System plans to target the automotive, aeronautical and construction industries, all of which need to deal with metals under stress. Is there a consumer product application for Color CB? That will be up to you designers reading this.

Via Ikinamo

Digital product design is a rapidly growing field that engages unique individuals with skillsets that unite traditional communication design principles with user experience capability and digital software skills. In an increasingly tech-driven world, more skilled digital product designers will be needed to create authentic and innovative digital touchpoints.

Because digital product design was traditionally dependent on a multi-team, multi-step process, the individuals involved developed specializations preventing them from seeing the entire production chain. Because the role of the designer has expanded over time, the field now demands a change in the methodology applied to the task of creating digital products—one in which the designer can lead the development of the product from start to finish.

With these emerging developments in mind, Parsons School of Design in New York City is pleased to announce the launch of a new one-year Master of Professional Studies in Communication Design. Featuring a concentration in Digital Product Design, the program offers students the cutting-edge conceptual design methods and technical skills needed to meet this growing marketplace demand.

Alex Lardaro, Well Spent, 2015

Elevating the role of the designer

Regardless of a digital product's function or technical sophistication, robust design principles must still serve as a foundation—principles which extend beyond style and formal qualities. Today, visual designers need to understand the technical complexities behind their products, making them equal partners in the problem-solving stage of a project and amplifying their role within the overall development process.

Historically, a typical digital project might begin with research and strategy that would be handed off to a UX designer, who in turn would outline an information hierarchy based on target user behavior. Next in the process, a visual designer would transform a wireframe into an aesthetically pleasing interface. After a process of review, the design would get passed to software engineers who advise on what can—and often what can't—be built from a technological perspective. Roadblocks arise, and creative work would inevitably be compromised to meet technological constraints.

As digital products become more integrated into every industry, designers have a responsibility to evolve along with the process and find a more efficient, more effective way of working. Just as skilled print designers must understand the opportunities and limitations of their tools—printing techniques, inks, paper stocks, etc.—digital designers must gain an understanding of basic coding and prototyping skills. This capacity allows designers to work within a platform's limitations and identify creative opportunities, avoiding the time-consuming back-and-forth between design and engineering teams.

Zut Alors!, The Suzanne Geiss Company, 2014

Employers are beginning to recognize the tangible business benefits of designers who can see the big picture—overall goals, target audience, user expectations—while understanding the advantages and limitations of the specific tool they are designing for. Increasingly, designers are expected to incorporate typographic, compositional, and systems-driven thinking into data-dependent environments and create design solutions within technical parameters. It's our responsibility as designers to develop this new skillset in ways that harness our existing abilities while maintaining a commitment to experimentation and innovation.

Carrying forward a tradition of innovation

Traditional design skills are always going to be fundamental to great work, but as the use of software and digital products increases, designers must keep up with the industry's evolution. Graduate programs like the Master of Professional Studies in Communication Design at Parsons School of Design can help designers bolster their skills in design methodologies, and give them the digital product skills they need to transition into this new specialization.

As designers, we have earned our place a table—but the surrounding scenario has changed. As practitioners in a continually evolving industry, we are not only uniquely suited to adapt to the changes before us, but to lead it as well. Digital product design is simply the contemporary context under which designers can demonstrate their skill as cultural arbiters, critically reflecting on our rapidly evolving environmental, commercial, and social landscape.

Brendan Griffiths is a graphic designer, programmer, and educator living and working in New York City. He is a partner in the design practice Zut Alors! and is the program director of the MPS Communication Design program at Parsons School of Design within The New School. For more information about the program, visit the program's website. 

I've been getting a lot of requests to do a sketch demo of a boat. Specifically on how to get the overall hull shape in perspective. Personally, I love drawing boats. I don't know much about them, and I rarely go on them, but I love the elegant forms of their hulls.

The first thing I do is draw the overall volume the hull occupies. I know you have seen the rectangle in space thing a thousand times, but it really is a good starting point. Once I have this, I divide it down the center—it is now easy to draw in the two arcs that make the left and right (port and starboard? ... like I said, I don't really know much about boats) as well as the arc of the bottom of the boat. All of the other details hinge off those three lines. This sketch took about 30 minutes in real time. Give it a watch and comment bellow with any questions. Remember to turn your sound on to hear me explaining everything as I go. I also love getting your requests in the comments.

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.

Designed by AME for Dale Hardware, the Jigtech device helps joiners to fit door handles in a fraction of the time compared to traditional methods. The easy-to-use device saves contractors & fitters up to 20 minutes when installing a handle and latch to interior doors. AME developed the Jigtech product from concept through to prototyping, testing and volume manufacturing, drawing on our experience of developing tools for the DIY sector.

One element of doing a great job when designing for a client is, as expected, delivering a great concept. Another crucial aspect? The way you handle organizing it all. 

In the Core77 discussion boards, chriscarter asks a relevant question for pretty much any designer juggling multiple projects at once: 

I'm interested in how design consultancies manage multiple projects and resources efficiently. We have typically used Excel sheets in the past, but it can be sluggish and inefficient. [Microsoft Project] doesn't seem much easier to use.

What I'm looking for is an effective method of managing top level multi-project schedules and team resourcing, but also managing specific tasks within a particular project (i.e. the stage gates of a typical NPD process). As a designer first, and project leader second, I want a project management tool to be intuitive and easy to use. I've noticed a lot of web based project management tools available - has anyone got experience of these?

Is there a tool out there that acts as a magic weapon when it comes to managing multifaceted or multiple projects? Are certain programs more appropriate for different sizes and types of projects? Core77 discussion board member Cyberdemon says absolutely: 

"If you're working as part of a larger organization, [Microsoft Project] may be unavoidable especially in a Gantt chart driven project.

A lot of people like Smartsheet, though now that I focus on software it's more about Agile tools like Jira. I've been using an open source Gantt tool for when I absolutely need to make one to communicate high level schedules.

If your job is designing first, figure out how to focus on design while keeping the PM [project management] work to a minimum. Most larger consultancies ultimately end up hiring a dedicated PM as they grow to deal with this, since it's difficult to do both effectively, especially if you're spending 4 hours a day on management, client communication, etc.

Gantt charts may be the norm, but they sure ain't the most intuitive

Core77 regular Michael DiTullo (aka "yo") shares a tool that helps on the front of marketing and branding—

"We use Teamwork... not the concept, though that helps, [but] the software. 

Right now we only use it on our marketing and brand design teams, but will likely roll it out to NPD at some point."

As Jamie Oetting of Hubspot points out, there a few things that are important to consider when choosing the right tool for an agency, a few of those being—

-Can your project management evolve with you as your agency grows? 

- Is it user-friendly? 

- Can it integrate well with other softwares you use?

- How will your clients be interacting with your management tool? 

- Have you established what the ultimate goal is of using your project management tool? 

These are all valid points when digging into what software works best for you, so choose wisely. 

What works for you?

We want to hear what's worked for you in the past, whether it's a particular project management software or simply a tip on how to run a project efficiently, manage stress, or even cut corners to make your life during the course of a project run more smoothly. 

Contribute your suggestions in the comment feed below or share your thoughts on the original discussion board page!

Years ago, I saw a 1920s Ruhlmann Macassar Ebony bedroom set, similar to what you see here, at a furniture auction at Christie's. This big double bed with a tigerskin throw had belonged to some Paris "bachelor"—it was flanked by a matching armoire and nightstands and featured a headboard in the shape of a giant sunburst. My thought, and I imagine the first thought of all who passed it, was "I want to have sex on this bed." The sales estimate was about a quarter of a million dollars, and worth every penny if you ask me.

In my opinion, that's one embodiment of great design. The bed's form is functional, and the look of the set reinforces, I imagine, the message that bachelor wanted to tell visitors to his bedroom.

When you make or buy a piece of furniture, it has to fulfill its function and be a good value, but to be really successful, the piece ought help with the owner's "personal branding." The fancy furniture, antiques, and carvings in J. P. Morgan's office library says, in no uncertain terms, that you are standing in the presence of a rich, educated man of the world, who is solid and reliable. Like all branding, we buy it even if we don't want to.

The sad part comes when I cannot produce pieces that match my idea of my personal brand. One reason for this is that my skill level isn't that great. But the real reason is that I don't try to stretch myself, or dream big enough, to want to try to learn new skills.

Most of the furniture I've made has been within the Arts & Crafts style. I like it, but let's face it—one of the reasons A&C furniture is so popular, along with Shaker designs, is that they're pretty easy for hobbyists to make. Colonial Revival furniture, which is also pretty popular, is harder to make, but a lot simpler than what rich people of that time really wanted (I didn't make the pieces pictured below, they are just examples of the styles mentioned).

Arts & Crafts

Shaker

Colonial Revival

The bottom line is, if you want to make a living building furniture for rich people—the only people who can afford custom furniture—you have to design and make stuff that they want.

George Walker has written some excellent material on design for Popular Woodworking, revealing the construction elements of complex pieces. What he doesn't talk about, presumably because it's unknowable, is how to make stuff people want to buy. The popular designs published in the magazine aren't the ones that were popular in their time amongst bespoke furniture buyers. The Colonial Revival furniture that we reproduce today had a heyday in the 1920's—about the same time our Frenchman bought his bedroom set. The really rich people in the United States at the time might have liked the idea of Colonial Revival furniture harking back to traditional American values, but what they actually bought for their mansions and public places was far more gaudy, far more European in design, "modern looking,"and much more sexy.

Stickley and other A&C designs were meant to be made in a factory by machine, or made by hand by amateurs. Rich people did buy Greene & Greene, Frank Lloyd Wright, or Charles Rennie Mackintosh furniture, but those three designers were far more decorative than the simple lines of more universal A&C designers.

Greene & Greene

Wright

Mackintosh

Going back even further in time, Shaker furniture might be very popular as a modern project, but it's joiner's work, not what a cabinetmaker of the early 1800s strove for. The illustration below is an 1836 plate from The Practical Cabinet-Maker with Numerous Illustrative Engravings by Peter and Michael Angelo Nicholson:

That's a sexy divan—just perfect for pitching woo to Mrs. Divinia Parson's daughter. The Shakers were celibate, and their sofas and beds were austere and frankly not as much fun.

Don't get me wrong, I like all of the genres of furniture I mentioned here, but I feel my desire has outgrown them—even if my skill level hasn't, and I need to stretch on my next project.

For those of you designing and creating bespoke furniture, my suggestion, from a commercial standpoint, is to get good enough so you can make fancy furniture that is difficult to clone in factories and that rich people have historically wanted to buy. In some sporadic follow-ups, I plan to write about ways of achieving luxurious work using neglected techniques and materials.

If there is one thought every design entrepreneur shares, it is this: "I often find product categories where I can't find an offering that meets my standards for function/design/quality/cost." This then drives them to see if they can do better by producing and selling their own design.

In the case of Michigan-based inventor, Eric Steckling, who penned the sentence above, this had to do with cast-iron skillets. While they're a mainstay in many a kitchen, their production method is the same as that used in the 19th Century: Sand casting. This produces rough-surfaced, chunky objects that are heavy. Steckling and his company, Marquette Castings, reckoned they could get the weight down while maintaining iron's heat-retaining properties. "Reducing the weight of the cookware was one of our main design goals," they write. "Lighter cookware is easier to handle and clean."

Thus they turned to investment casting, using injection-molded wax blanks within ceramic shells to cast 8" and 10" pans. 

Left: Cast handle detail. Middle: Injection molded wax pattern. Right: Aluminum mold to make pattern

Ceramic shell around wax template

Ceramic shell coming off new casting

With this production method, they're able to achieve both thinner wall thicknesses (3mm versus the typical 5mm) and a smoother finish that better accepts seasoning.

Left: Old-school. Right: New-school.

Investment casting a larger-diameter pan wasn't viable, however, so for their 12" model they stuck with sand casting but then milled the thicknesses down.

12" Skillet after milling

In order to bring these three pans to market, Marquette Castings launched a Kickstarter campaign:

At press time they were about 25% of the way there, with $7,352 pledged towards a $30,000 goal and 27 days left to pledge. Intriguingly, they're not only offering early bird specials at lower prices, but also "late bird" specials for even less, for buyers who are willing to wait for later production runs. For example:

- 8" Skillet - Early Bird - $98 - Ships Jan. 2017
- 8" Skillet - Standard - $90 - Ships Feb. 2017
- 8" Skillet - Late Bird - $80 - Ships Mar. 2017

You can learn more about the pans, and see videos on both their casting processes and pre-seasoning techniques, at their campaign page.

BioLite's BaseCamp

As far as we're concerned, BioLite has got the best products on the market for turning firewood into energy. That's why we gave their BaseCamp stove a Core77 Design Award last year. BioLite's cooking stoves improve combustion efficiency, reduce smoke and generate electricity—a triple win.

Now a sort of would-be partial competitor has emerged, or is attempting to, on Kickstarter. Have a look at this JikoPower Spark device:

We can't consider the Spark a true competitor to a BioLite stove, as the former is an add-on device and the latter provides a complete solution. It's possible that they can compete on price: The Spark is going for $115 on Kickstarter and a BioLite CampStove goes for $130. The price difference is negligible in developed nations, but admittedly might prove a dealbreaker in developing nations where $15 is a lot harder to come by.

One additional advantage the Spark has is that it can be "retrofit" to any situation where there's already fire. 

But in our eyes, the advantages stop there. The glaring drawback is that the Spark's UX doesn't look all that great. It obviously has to be placed quite close to the heat source, and propping it up on an uneven or elevated surface looks like a jury-rigged affair at best.

This seems precarious, and possibly even dangerous, to us.

I just don't like the idea of placing a lever with a protruding handle under something that gets very hot.

Spark's industrial design, we feel, has a long way to go. While the developers produced a series of iterative prototypes, the final product still doesn't look quite finished to us. We don't mean that in a design-snob aesthetic sense; we mean in a functional, practical sense. The flat bottom and overall form just don't seem like the best solution for being placed near a variety of heat sources. 

Contrast that with the UX for any of BioLite's stoves, where ease-of-use is paramount.

BioLite's CampStove

What do you think? Can a better design for the Spark make it a worthy competitor to BioLite, or do you think BioLite's "whole package" design approach and well-thought-out UX means they've got the market stitched up?

The NBA is seeking a qualified candidate for the position of Art Director. The Art Director will be responsible for leading the concept, design and execution of innovative visual solutions for the NBA, WNBA, D-League, and USA Basketball. This person will develop creative content and concepts both independently and collaboratively for multiple channels, including television, digital, print, mail, mobile and other innovative media platforms.

Clint Case is a leatherworker, woodworker, DIY'er and a dad. He's also a fan of The Empire Strikes Back, and made his son this fantastic costume for Halloween:

The Instagram caption below reveals what it's made out of and that Case started on it in June:

No word on whether the costume doubles as a grisly sleeping bag.

For a good workbench, mass and weight are the rule. You want a bench beefy enough that it's not going to move when you're routing or hand planing workpieces. This means that few serious woodworkers will put their benches on wheels, as that makes them prone to slide and skitter (even with locking casters) when force is applied.

But sometimes you do need to move the darn thing around, and when you're by yourself, trying to shove or drag several hundred pounds is backbreakingly impractical.

Christopher Schwarz helped fellow woodworker Megan Fitzpatrick get around this by working up the following add-on for her bench. It took him "about an hour" to hack it together, and can get the bench ready to roll in seconds:

"I've never seen it before, but I'm sure someone, somewhere has done it already," Schwarz writes. "It's based on a 'Shortcut' we published years ago as a way to raise and lower your workbench."You can read details of the construction here.

Designers among you: What would you do to make the wheel-board easier to flip in and out? I love the simplicity of this idea, but realize it is possible for a klutz like me to crush my foot, and I wonder what ergonomic improvement could be made.