For designers unhappy with current political events, it can be frustrating to not be able to use one's skills to improve the situation. But while we may not be able to CAD our way into policy changes, one area where design can help is in the presentation of information.

Here's a fine example. Seeking to explain the practice of gerrymandering (whereby politicians rearrange the boundaries of districts in order to benefit their chances of winning an election) to layfolk, Redditor N8theGr8 created this simple graphic:

The Washington Post had one of their graphic designers expand on it:

They also provided a graphic showing how this happens on a real map, indicating PA-7, a Pennsylvania Congressional district modified to be "one of the most geographically irregular districts in the nation" in order to benefit the party in power:

An organization called FairVote seeks to combat system-gaming like this, fighting "to make democracy fair, functional, and more representative." It is the domain of activists to set up organizations like these. Perhaps design can help by creating informative graphics that help send citizens their way.

As should be obvious, some of the following images are pretty unpleasant. So is the idea that a computer is generating them on purpose to horrify humans. Scroll with that in mind. 

The Nightmare Machine is a project out of MIT Media Lab, spearheaded (or spear-faced?) by researchers Pinar Yanardag, Manuel Cebrian and Iyad Rahwan. It is a deep learning program that generates imagery of human faces with the intent to be as upsetting as possible for a human audience. If, like me, you harbor great interest and enormous skepticism about our AI enabled future, this should rustle your jimmies a bit. 

As interest and capability in the AI field grows, many machine learning projects have emphasized learning geared towards positive machine-human interactions and provoking pleasant emotional responses. Relatability and realism have generally gone hand in hand with the aim of agreeable interactions. This team considered staying in that vein, but chucked it out in favor of a Halloween season idea: how can AI be used to intentionally inspire fear?

Starting with hundreds of thousands of photos of humans (largely celebrities) and a deep convolutional generative adversarial network, they taught the algorithm how to produce faces. Then they spooked it up a few notches by adding learning based on images of zombies. The outcome is sets of faces that are then ranked by scariness and fed back into the mill. As the data has grown based on human user input, trends have popped up that indicate certain themes in scariness. Blood, it turns out, is pretty upsetting.

Though it first debuted around Halloween of 2016 the project is still running and (some might say) more relevant than ever. You can personally help teach the algorithm, and help yourself towards nightmares, by ranking a set of faces on the Nightmare Machine's project website. Your input promotes fascinating research into both human and AI cognition—or perhaps, as everyone's favorite tech evangelist, Elon Musk, has mused, it will speed up the awakening of a demon.

Senik is a low-cost, technologically innovative fire extinguisher that was born out of a desire to make fire safety accessible to low-income settlements in India. It challenges the age-old design and presents a solution that is instinctive to use even in situations of extreme emergency, especially for users who are unaware of and untrained to use existing solutions.

Every aspect of the system has been designed to meet the constraints of low cost, accessibility and sustainability. It is a reusable system that combines water-mist fire suppression technology with a rapid gas generating chemical.

Scale Prototype

Credit: Abhishek Kumar Nirala

System Overview

The mechanism is fitted within a hard ABS body, and parts can be easily refitted

Chemical Technology

Chemical reaction that powers the mist-based fire suppression

Final Product View

Nozzle Design

The design is based on the venturi principle and took careful adjustments with 3-D printed prototypes to reach optimal engineering factors

Ergonomics & Usability

Usability was given prime importance and had to adhere to functionality

Mode of Operation

Credit: Logo Design: Sneha Sankar

2017 is already off to a rumbling start, and so is design aimed at smoothing things out. To address the rising international refugee crisis, IKEA's nonprofit wing has rolled out production for their Better Shelter project. As life gets more unstable for the 65 million displaced refugees around the world, the Better Shelter design brief was a stable one. Make a better shelter, cheaper. First demoed in 2013, the shelter is finally here, and the world is ready for it.

Building on their earlier designs, the final result is weatherproof, flat packing, assembled in four hours, and intended to house five people. The structure is made of three main parts: a frame, panels, and a solar power system for indoor lighting.

Based on the readily available shelters distributed by the UN, the Better Shelter aimed to be more durable, protective, and cost-effective. A tough goal but if anyone could do it, IKEA has the chops. They're already in use around the world as relief centers, medical shelters, and housing.

Here's the impressive way they come together. 

30,000 are already in use, and getting positive reviews. Given their recent win of the Beazeley Design of the Year, and MoMA's acquisition of one for their permanent collection, the feel good project warms the hearts of design wonks too. Too bad we won't be using many in the U.S.

I had no idea that it was possible to transplant trees. Then again I don't have any experience working with nursery distribution centers, and a company called Dutchman Industries does, having been spun off from one in the early 1970s.

Dutchman specializes in the mechanization of the field operations required by tree nurseries, and apparently every once in a while there's a need to relocate living trees. Thus they invented the Dutchman Tree Spade. Here's what their dinosaur-sized 100" model can do. (We've cued the video up to the appropriate moment, but warning—turn down your speakers!)

First off, that is freaking amazing. Secondly, to whomever edited this video: European club music? Is that what resonates with the arborist demographic? Also, are you the same guy who sets the volume level of NYC ambulances?

General Description: The Exhibition Designer will support the development of the exhibition scope including concept design and presentation materials, spatial planning, millwork design and all drawings and renderings. This position will collaborate with other exhibition designers and curators, bringing best practices, and new creative strategies to

Local Roots has finally made a mini farm that correctly combines the structural benefits of shipping containers with the difficulties of urban farming. Shipping containers are a beloved source of reengineering inspiration, but their reuse is often un-green and impractical. Similarly, there are so many fancifully farm-filled architecture concepts out there it boggles the mind. What makes the Local Roots TerraFarm project so interesting is the blunt simplicity of its purpose and their hyper efficient engineering. 

They take a 40-foot container, modify it for 5 acres of indoor agriculture, install the container on site, add plants, staff the container with trained farmers, and sell the resulting produce to businesses in the immediate vicinity. Rather than breaking down the division of skilled labor as much food-infused architecture suggests, this simply makes production mobile and targets the markets where it is needed. 

By utilizing the easily sealed nature of containers and cutting edge environmental monitoring tech, the Local Roots system cuts water, pesticide and fertilizer use down by incredible margins - up to 98% less water in some environments. This is an enormous boon in regions like California and the southwest. 

To stimulate growth for their 365 day cycles, the TerraFarms use high efficiency red and blue LEDs and close monitoring of soil and plant health to automate care and minimize waste. The lack of packaging and transit time additionally reduces carbon footprint and boots nutritional value, as the veggies are allowed to ripen longer and pass through fewer processing stages.  

They hope to increase the fleet of container farms to help cut down the distance high nutrition food travels to urban markets. The Local Roots team also hopes their system will be able to bring local produce to food deserts and other regions (possibly around the world) where affordable organic food is currently unavailable. For now the project is serving southern California and LA, providing greens for restaurants, universities, and large companies. SpaceX is notably among them, so if it sounds grandiose and futuristic, it is. It's also really happening. Take a virtual tour here to get a sense of the TerraFarms for yourself.

Last year we wrote about Ili, a wondrous portable translation device that suffered from a badly-conceived commercial. To refresh your memory, it featured a white guy running around Tokyo using the device to ask random Japanese girls if he could kiss them. Following the backlash the commercial was pulled from Ili's YouTube page, but has been preserved by others.

Well, apparently the folks behind Ili learned their lesson. Here's their more recent commercial, which is much more respectful to women:

What the hell went on in that brainstorming meeting? "We've got this amazing device that can bridge communication gaps. Should we show it doing humanitarian work? Or place it in an educational context? Or depict its use in international peacekeeping operations?"

"Nah, I've got a way better idea."

Pulse Performance Products was looking to add an authentic-looking electric chopper to their line that gives beginners an authentic riding experience. We diligently researched full-sized chopper motorcycles and sought to make the the Chopster E-Motorcycle as genuine as possible, from the radically modified steering angles and lengthened forks, to the high handlebars and sissy bar. To stay true to the chopper styling, we gave the the Chopster E-Motorcycle a sleek, custom look that distinctly differentiates it from other models.

In London, the Royal Ballet School is linked to the Royal Opera House by this structure, known as the Bridge of Aspiration:

When Stacy Park was a design student at Pratt Institute, she was given the assignment to "choose a brand and design a sewing kit for the male consumer keeping in relation to the brand image." The brand she went with was the RBS, and she took the Bridge as inspiration for the form. Here's what she came up with:

Threads, needles, scissor, patches, needle threader, safety pins, and all the basic necessities for sewing are included for emergency situations. The design concept was taken from the Bridge of Aspiration which connects the Royal Opera House to the Royal Ballet School. The delicate twisted shape of the bridge reflects the flexibility and gracefulness of ballet.

Nice work, Stacy!

Via Packaging of the World

Some of you carry pocketknives but I'm guessing most of you don't. I do because I work in a warehouse and it's handy to have. In addition to the one I carry, I have another that I use to cut my lunchtime sandwich.

These days not many folks carry one, but in Victorian England, a gentleman needed a knife at all times. Among other things, he'd use it to sharpen his pencil, file and trim his nails, and even tighten up the laces of his shoes (at the time they had lots and lots of hooks). And in earlier times when silverware was not common, everyone traveled with an eating knife.

The knife above, by Baxter circa 1900, is a fancy example of a Victorian pocketknife. The hook is for pulling laces, the scissors is for paperwork, the nail file has a ridge in it for your nails.

It's a very well-made knife and a functional one. But what I really want to call your attention to is the decorative metalwork. The brass liners (which separate the blades) have decorative mill marks. The back and blades are covered with "file work" where decorative patterns are filed into the springs and blades in a pattern. The trick is making everything line up properly when the knife is assembled. There are many styles of filework and this type of knife is known as a "workback" because of the file work on the back. Oh, and there's even remnants of gold plating on the inside of the liners.

This is pretty much the apex of production knife making in Sheffield. Sadly, as an antique this knife is too valuable to be causally used and carried today, but fortunately there are many small makers around the world carrying on the tradition. However one of the big appeals for me with this knife is that it was part of a regular trade of making all sorts of knives for all budgets. I would even venture to guess that the original owner of this knife didn't carry it with him every day (for fear of loss), but had a less expensive, plainer knife for everyday use. That's why this knife is in such great shape. If it really was used every day it would have worn out long ago.

The knives in the picture above and below are by Taylor Eyewitness one of the last Sheffield companies still making decorative knives along with a regular line of more functional knives. Make no mistake, these knives are functional and fancy. I like this idea because most knives sold today are either really inexpensive and sort of a commodity, or really super special and end up in a collection, never to be used. Very few of the modern makers are interested in Victorian decoration, the very high cost being instead justified by exotic materials. Taylor Eyewitness' stuff is high end production, not one-off collectibles.

Lastly, a bit of trivia/terminology: If the knife has blades at both ends it's a pocketknife. If it has multiple blades coming from one side it's a jackknife.

Still thinking about submitting your best design projects from the past year to the Core77 Design Awards? Well, the time is now! You have until March 8 to submit while regular deadline still applies, and final deadline is March 29. But things get busy, so why not save yourself the stress and apply now? To get you even more excited about the awards, learn a little bit more about the esteemed designers who will be judging your working in Part 1 of our for part interview series: Introducing your 2017 Core77 Design Awards Jury Captains!

Part one includes chats with our judges for the Design Concept, Visual Communication and Furniture & Lighting categories. In their interviews, these seasoned designers touch on how they see design evolving in the future as well as a few things they'll be looking for in your Design Awards submissions.

Benjamin Hubert - 2017 Design Concept Captain

Founder, LAYER

Benjamin Hubert is an award-winning British design entrepreneur and founder of creative agency, LAYER. The new agency is the evolution of Benjamin Hubert Ltd. and is focused on experience-driven design for both the physical and digital worlds. 

On our first episode of "Core Talk", we spoke with Hubert about the future of design and what he's hoping to see from Core77 Design Awards submissions this year. 

Selen Selviler Özüekren - 2017 Visual Communication Captain

Co-founder & Creative Director, Karbon Design Studio

Selen Selviler Özüekren graduated as an architect from Istanbul Technical University in 1999. Karbon is a multi-disciplinary design studio providing creative solutions and consultancy in concept design, branding, communication design & strategy, architectural design and interior design. The Karbon team is a hybrid combination of graphic designers, communication designers and architects. The company established a reputation through their work specifically in overall concept designs for café&restaurants, packaging design and branding. She is a member of GMK, Turkish Graphic Designers Association since 2006.

What are some guiding principles to designing graphics and branding that stand out in an information saturated age?

Designing for busy minds of a loud and online world is clearly a challenge. We are exposed to an incredible amount of information even throughout a daily routine. So, the way we deal with information is worth a look; attention span of an average person is told to be shrinking, we are addicted to crash courses and short videos for almost any subject, infographics are trending. Actually, the way we are dealing with information is also changing.

A competent designer has the analytic skills to organize and arrange information and mould a pile of data into a simple but sharp message. Establishing a unique point of view requires a clarity of thoughts and a strong capability of expression.

On the other hand, we now have access to the perfect tools and an enormous resource of information.

We have access to logo templates, visual materials, mock ups and everything. We have smart phones to take beautiful photos, great editing tools to work on them and tons of information about how to do it. So rather than "how" I think we're supposed to dig deeper on "why".

So the information saturated age is pushing us many levels forward to dig deep, make great use of technology and information and come up with the unique idea or product.

In what ways have you seen the role of communication designers evolve since you started in the field?

I'm a person of communication. I believe that strong communication and instincts make up the perfect foundation for me to start a design project.

In the past decade, I had the chance to observe how we transferred from verbal communication to visual communication. Phone calls and brief meetings evolved into e-mails and presentations, text messages evolved into emoji, instant photos and photos with customized graphics. I think it's more about communication now, as we are trying very hard to express ourselves in the electronic world. We are globally exposed to visual communication more than ever. Eventually, this is positioning the communication designer at a very strategic point.

What specifically do you pay attention to in work and in life to be the most effective and inspired in your practice? Do you have advice for other designers on how to stay inspired?

Curiosity is my trigger. I'm craving for information and it keeps me inspired to learn. Never stop learning and never think it's too late to learn something new.

Lastly, I believe that the nature of design is interdisciplinary. Cooperative work of people from multiple fields of design is exciting in a totally different way.

Zhoujie Zhang - 2017 Furniture & Lighting Captain

Founder, Zhoujie Zhang Digital Lab

Zhang graduated from Central Saint Martins Art & Design College in London, and is a member of the Architectural Association School of Architecture. He established Zhoujie Zhang Digital Lab in 2010. Zhang believes that objects in the digital world can grow and morph much like things found in nature, and he is dedicated to discovering and exploring the methods within these transformations. His work mainly focuses on the simplicity of logic, variety and unpredictability, which is based on his understanding of nature. His collections have been exhibited around the world and selected by museums as well as individual collectors. His work has appeared in mainstream media such as Wallpaper*, the New York Times, and Vogue.

Your background and philosophy doesn't echo the traditional resume of a furniture designer—how did your interest in the field begin?

At the very beginning around 2008-2009, I was conducting lots of research around digital design and fabrication. At that time parametric and computer generated design were starting to take important roles in the field of design, so I thought this was a promising area to do tests. I thought furniture might be an appropriate field, especially the chair, in that it is the most over-designed object and easy to test new ideas on it.

That is how I began designing furniture. After 7 years, I am still doing many digital tests in this field—in addition to furniture, I'm also working in the fields of digital artwork and sculpture.

Technology allows us more than ever to produce things we have imagined in our heads. How do you think digital rendering technologies have changed the definition of this craft and the role of the designer? How has it presented new opportunities?

Rendering technologies are just a small part of digital design—it's like a 3D visual effect. Overall, I think digital technologies have changed the role of designers quite a bit, as more and more smart software is being developed for human's needs. More advanced computer-aid softwares allow designers to design increasingly complicated objects. In the near future, the AI designer might be more prevalent than any other type of designer!

So yes, I think the role of designer is changing; designers at this point need to understand digital language and work with computers. Thus, I think it is a great opportunity for new generation designers to explore digital technologies in a variety of fields such as artificial intelligence, interaction design, digital fabrication and so on.

What are you hoping to see in the entries of the Design Awards this year?

First of all, I would be most interested to see some revolutionary designs—projects presenting a different way of thinking and making that propel us into the future. I would also be happy to see some clever designs, including different ways of solving familiar problems, groundbreaking new styles, and so on.

You have the chance to get your design in front of these industry leaders. Don't wait: submit your entry in today!

I've got a photographer buddy who, while watching TV or a movie, mentally deconstructs each scene to figure out where all of the off-camera lights are set up.

Similarly, the folks over at architectural rendering firm Drawbotics have, while watching their favorite TV shows, started reverse-engineering the floorplans.

As a team, we decided to use our 3D skills to recreate some of our favorite TV show work spaces, down to a lot of little details that will not go unnoticed by hardcore fans.

After marathon-viewing these shows for weeks and more than 200 hours of work, here are the results:

There's a few more over at the Drawbotics blog.

Via The Awesomer

Industrial Designer - Team Sports // Pittsburgh, PA Direction of the Director of Industrial Design, the Industrial Designer is responsible for the entire product design process within assigned Product Development categories. This individual is also responsible for researching global markets in order to identify new trends to

This month Ikea released their KUNGSBACKA line of cabinet faces, which are made from 100% recycled materials. Interestingly, they're using a blend of both post-manufacturing and post-consumer waste: The particleboard is made from factory-environment wood cut-offs as well as old broken pieces of furniture, and what Ikea refers to as the "foil"—the melamine-like veneer—is produced from plastic bottles harvested in Japan.

A lot of people have picked up on the KUNGSBACKA story, but I noticed that no one (including Ikea, in their publicity materials) has mentioned what kind of glue they use. For those of you unfamiliar with manufacturing, wood glue is used both to bind the components of particle board together during its production process and subsequently to adhere laminates or veneers to it. This glue can contain formaldehyde, which offgases into the air. This is the main reason I avoid particle board.

So I looked into it and found the following, written by Lorenz Isler, Sustainability Manager for Ikea Switzerland in 2014:

We aim to ensure that the volume of formaldehyde emissions from IKEA wood products corresponds with the natural output level – that is to say, very low and in accordance with the legal requirements. The current measurement for IKEA furniture is an average of 0.05 ml/m3 [parts per million] of air – approximately 50% below the legally permissible limit.

We began to take measures to lower formaldehyde emissions in 1986, following a test in Denmark on a product with too high a measurement. We then quickly decided to follow the most stringent of the national limits (in Germany), and to use this limit as a benchmark for all IKEA furniture worldwide. In 1993, we banned the use of formaldehyde in paints in our products. Formaldehyde was then removed from adhesives used for gluing veneer coatings onto furniture.

Which means that Ikea has taken an early and progressive focus on reducing formaldehyde to safe levels. Given Ikea's size and global reach, this is good news for both the planet and their customers, and I'm kind of surprised that they didn't trumpet this in their press materials; perhaps it's because it's old news to them, and/or perhaps the average consumer is ignorant enough of formaldehyde in manufacturing that it wasn't worth addressing.

Speaking of which, while searching for Ikea's glue formulations I came across a lot of information about formaldehyde safety data, its usage in manufacturing and its differing standards around the world. It's a fairly complicated topic and one that I worry might be too convoluted for this blog; however, if you readers—particularly you industrial designers who work with particle board, plywood or MDF—would like me to go through the documentation and unpack everything to make it easier to understand, please let me know in the comments and I'll hop to it.

Over 100,000 people die every year from natural disasters. Their families have often lost everything they own, and they can't afford to give their loved ones the funeral they deserve.

Our casket provides an affordable, sustainable, and dignified solution for victims of natural disasters. It packs flat for expedited deployment and provides a platform for volunteers and professionals to collect and care for victims with safety and sanitation in mind.

The system arrives flat on a pallet, with plywood panels pre-adhered onto a waxed cardboard membrane. The plywood adds structure to the casket while the waxed cardboard lining creates a leathery soft interior and a leak resistant surface. The large flat backboard can be used to retrieve bodies and as a work surface for autopsies or emergency medical procedures.

Once the medical professionals are finished with the body, the backboard is closed inside the two other portions and is carried to the grave site where families may hold a funeral service. As an option, the top half of the casket can be temporarily removed so that family members can view the body during the service.

The cardboard is die cuts and scores the folding pattern straight into the cardboard, making it easy for volunteers to assemble on site with little to no instruction. As a hinge, the cardboard provides surprisingly strong structural support. On our first scale prototype, we had planned to use metal brackets to reinforce every joint, but found that only half of them were necessary.

It takes only 1.5 sheets of half inch 4'x8' plywood to make each casket. We use a miter bit to trace our profiles which makes edges softer and easier to handle, while also reducing the amount of steel we need to make our brackets. During the same CNC process, we cut holes and slots for handle attachment, as well as the holes for our brackets, which are embedded with t-nuts so that volunteers can assemble everything using only an allen wrench.

Polyester ropes are threaded through each piece of plywood before they are placed on the gluing jig. They are tied off in a modified quadruple fisherman's knot, which functions both as a splicing mechanism and as a handle for carrying the coffin after assembly. When all these pieces are in place, the non-waxed side of the cardboard is mounted onto the plywood using an industrial spray adhesive. For wet disasters, a spray-on wax or poly finish can be applied externally after the adhesive has fully cured. Our brackets are water-jet from 12-gauge steel, and are pre-attached to one side of the casket to greater simplify the assembly.

Using plywood and cardboard as a composite has proven to be a robust and easily deployable system. We are using extremely common materials in a way that they've never been used before, and throughout this process we have seen the potential to use the same system for quickly erecting other small structures such as refugee shelters, sheds, and other non-conditioned outdoor spaces

When it comes to design industry standards, there are plenty of rules left unwritten; for new graduates just starting in the corporate world, such career knowledge can feel especially foreign. This is one reason why it's especially helpful to have a resource like the Core77 discussion boards to get in touch with designers of all ages and disciplines in order to get an experienced and well-rounded lay of the land. 

For discussion board user and new design graduate AVClub, his most pressing question at hand has to do with timelines. As the lone in-house designer at his first job since graduating, he doesn't have a sounding board of designers to rely on so asked some Core77 discussion board experts their thoughts on the topic. AVClub writes,

"I am working my first job out of school (aside from various internships I completed while in school) at a company where I am a single internal designer, who works with a few outside designers. I really love what I am doing and have had awesome opportunities thus far and have learned a lot from the designers I work with. One thing I was curious about is if anyone would be able to share approximate times for tasks that they complete. For instance, how long do you take to sketch concepts for a product? etc. My gut tells me 'it depends' but my org has been inquiring so they can accurately gauge timelines with the product manager (engineering background) and sales, etc. It would be great to know generic project timelines, if you are able to share."

___________________________________________________________________________________

Unsurprisingly, the responses to this question were varied. Participants like Greenman noted the value of paying attention to this information and recording your own experiences over time:

"Good question, and a smart one to ask so early in your career. If you get proficient in tracking time spent, then you can better forecast how long projects will take, the more projects that you do, the more accurately you will become and estimating your time. This is valuable information to the money people and it can help you make cases for all sorts of things like faster design tools, scaling project scope, or even hiring more designers. The answer really is "it depends", and some of the things it depends on are the type of product and the scope of the project.

If you aren't doing so already, I would recommend that you start tracking your time for all tasks, that includes meetings and time spent on revisions and design changes."

The one consensus seemed to be that time spent certainly depends on the scope of a project. Trusted Core77-er yo even put together a handy list of time estimates for each step in the design process:

"design research: 4-5 weeks depending on complexity

research synthesis and cross disciplinary workshop: 1-2 weeks

initial concept archetype exploration with down select session: 2-3 weeks

product concept sketching: 2 weeks

concept refinement: 2 weeks

design CAD: depends on how complex and how much internals have being worked in parallel

final design model production: 4-5 weeks

design revisions and CMF: 2 weeks

design for production: this can be long depending on where engineering is in the process but ideally 3-4 weeks

design oversight of NPD: until MP1 (typically 12 months)

Obviously other things can be done in parallel. The most intense time being up front from research to CMF documentation. Call that 3-4 months."

It's important to keep in mind though, as rkuchinsky points out, different company operations, sizes, and philosophies can significantly affect the conventional flow of product development:

"Not only does it depend on the project, and the team/skills, it depends on the organization. I've worked in pretty lean organizations with a solid/experienced team and would say things got done in 50% of the time as above. As a consultant, I might do the work in 1/3 of the time.

If you track things out, you might be surprised to see how long "actual work" takes, vs. time spent talking about it, meeting about it, planning the planning process for it, tracking it, etc.

In a larger organization with a big team and management/review structure things could easily take 200%+ of the above. I recall interviewing once in a large multinational organization and presenting some work my team (of 3 including myself) had done. The interviewers commented that the work was great and asked about the other teams involved and how many years the project had taken. They were shocked when I told them that we had done everything from product planning, to design, development, marketing, packaging, etc. from initial plan to retail in a 9 month window. They told me that it would have taken them 1.5 years typically using 3-4 teams (marketing, design, development, etc.) of 5-10 people each.

We want to hear what you think—do you feel the estimates presented here are accurate? Any more tips for new designers coming into the field on how to wow clients and bosses with their designs? Comment in the thread below or on the original discussion board to get in on the conversation!

Christopher Moore studied Industrial Design at the Georgia Institute of Technology, but the ID field wasn't enough to keep him; we lost him to the Chicago School of Violin Making. There he learned classical 17th- and 18th-Century crafting techniques, and for the past 16 years he's run his own fine stringed instrument manufacturing and repair workshop in Wisconsin.

Moore submitted the following project to a Fine Woodworkingcontest, explaining where the raw materials came from: "I'm a cello maker and have lots of scraps from pegbox cut-offs. So I thought it would be cool to make a different sort of box from what I had lying around."

I tried to include some of the design elements of a violin without having the end result look kitchy, and the violin corner makes for a nice lift on the lid. The hinge is made of ebony from an old fingerboard and was meant to somewhat allude to the tailpiece.

For the finish, I varnished it as I do my instruments, and then I antiqued it to try and make it look like a 200 year old, well-used sort of box. The materials are spruce, maple, and ebony.

Unsurprisingly, Moore won first place in FW's "Build Outside the Box" challenge.

Last night my Maple 18" bowsaw broke. It's a relatively well-made tool that I've maintained and used properly, but regular use over the last few years has weakened it and last night it just wore out.

This should be expected since the wood choice, Maple, was not the best to begin with. For those of you surprised by this, I'll go into a little Wood 101 , slightly oversimplified, to explain. 

Hardness Does Not Always Equal Strength

The tiny pores are spread all over so there is no distinct plane of strength and little room to bend.

Yes, Maple is very hard, but hardness should not be confused with strength. Usually the harder a wood, the more brittle it becomes. The hardness is a reflection of the wood's density. The tighter packed the fibers are, the less space in between them and less compression. This means that the wood doesn't bend much, and very often you will find a higher MOE (modulus of elasticity) rating accompanies the species. When something doesn't flex under a dynamic load, it relies only on the fibers to withstand the force and often will break or micro cracks will develop. When this break occurs it usually shatters instead of splinters. A good example of this is a Maple baseball bat versus an older Ash bat. In this case, Maple is a diffuse porous wood so it is very tightly packed and the open space (the pores) are tiny and evenly spaced in no particular pattern throughout the wood.

This ring porous wood clearly illustrates the lines of strength between the pores

Ash is ring porous, with larger pores ordered in neat rings, thus leaving non-porous material also lined up in between the pores. This makes for long strands of fibers that have room to flex into the open pores in a predictable manner.

Here is a food analogy you can use to illustrate this. Grab some spaghetti and hold 10 or 12 pieces loosely in your hand. Now bend them. They will flex a bit with the open space around them. Take those same pieces and grip them tightly so they are packed tightly together. Now bend them. They will snap very easily because there is no room to flex into.

Those pieces of spaghetti are all the same material with the same hardness properties. So hardness alone can't be used to determine the strength of a wood since both Ash and Maple have similar Janka hardness ratings. (It is a good starting point, however, especially when you get into hardness ratings above 1500.)

Kiln Drying Makes the Cookie Crumble

Now add to the mix a kiln-dried wood. Kiln drying hardens the wood fibers, just like most things harden when they are baked. Take a flour tortilla and put it in the oven. In a few minutes you have a crispy tortilla that will break when you try to bend it. This is what is happening in a lumber kiln to some extent.

Kilns also use steam to lower this shock and keep the fibers more pliable. Take that same tortilla but wrap it in a wet paper towel then bake it. You will get a warm, but more flexible tortilla. (Anybody getting hungry yet?)

Air-dried wood does not rely on heat to force evaporation, so the fibers do not harden and they retain their natural pliability. The woods that are the strongest and handle dynamic forces best are ones that are air-dried regardless of species.

Sawing Goes Against the Grain

Sawing by its very nature cuts the wood fibers and rarely follows the natural grain. When you cut across the wood fibers you weaken the wood dramatically. Riving the wood splits it along the grain and exploits the natural weakness between the fibers while leaving long, continuous strands of wood fiber which are ridiculously strong.

A board comprised of a bunch of short fibers relies entirely on the "glue" between the fibers to hold it together. Cut a 1 inch piece off a board and you will see how easy it is to break in half across the grain with just your fingers. The "glue" isn't strong enough to withstand even a little force. (Sorry no food analogy here, if you can think of one let me know.)

What is Strong?

In all of the cases above I am thinking about a situation where dynamic stresses will be placed on the wood. Let's face it, if we make furniture, this is most of the time. From sliding a table across the floor to leaning back in a chair, our joinery and the wood itself is being subjected to varying levels of force.

A bowsaw is an extreme example, where a rigid cross piece aligns its strongest dimension against the weakest dimension of the arms. Then tension is applied by shortening the distance between the arms at the top while restraining the bottom with a saw blade. This is akin to breaking a board over your knee—it doesn't take much force. The bowsaw arms are the same and you can easily snap one by applying too much tension. Likewise the constant tightening and loosening will wear out the fibers. Take a credit card and bend it and straighten it repeatedly. It will become very weak and eventually break.

So how does this help us choose a strong wood? It is all situational and one needs to recognize where the force will be placed on the wood and how much. A keepsake box sees very low stress so there is nothing to worry about. A dining chair sees a lot of stress and a combination of well-planned joinery and wood selection is in order. Usually chair makers rely on riven wood and optimize their joinery to place the strong dimensions so they are resisting or supporting each other.

Strength requirements vary dramatically and in most furniture it isn't something we need to worry about. It's when we get into the stuff that takes the most dynamic pressure that we need to start planning. Axe handles, chairs, roof trusses, and bow saws.

In a perfect world we could all be working with riven and air dried material. It would be ring porous to allow for a natural bending tendency. When some of these factors can't be found then the others become all the more important.

The hardest is probably the air dried thing. Most of us only have access to kiln dried material so we need to choose our species wisely and if possible split out our parts to maximize the long grain. If you don't have the extra stock to split it out then all you have going for you is choosing the species wisely and a nice ring porous wood is your best option. Think Ash, Hickory, Oak, or even Walnut (semi-ring porous).

A larger bow saw means a longer and wider blade so wood choice is key

So with all of this in mind, why did I make my own turning saw out of Maple? Simple answer, because it was pretty and I had it on hand. This saw needs much less tension with a shorter and narrower blade so it will perform nicely and has for some time. However I won't be shocked when one day it snaps on me as I'm probably introducing micro fractures every time I use it.

The model available from Gramercy uses Hickory, and will outlast my shop-made one easily because it is a naturally bendy, ring porous wood. My larger bowsaw was expected to tension a much wider and longer blade plus cut through thicker stock. It makes sense then that the more heavy duty the tool, the more thought needs to go into wood choice.

If I can leave you with anything it is not to run for the hills panicking that all your projects will fall apart because you are using a hard and brittle wood that is kiln dried and sawn. Heck even my kiln dried, sawn, Maple bowsaw lasted four years of hard use before giving up. The key is that when it snapped, I was not surprised at all and even expected it. When I remake the arm, I will make two and use a more appropriate wood species.

The bowsaw is an extreme example with the forces it is expected to withstand, but hopefully a look at these principles will help you understand the material we all love that much more.

Now go make a spaghetti burrito.

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This "Hand Tool School" series is provided courtesy of Shannon Rogers, a/k/a The Renaissance Woodworker. Rogers is founder of The Hand Tool School, which provides members with an online apprenticeship that teaches them how to use hand tools and to build furniture with traditional methods.

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