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14 Must-See Exhibits at Salone del Mobile 

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Today marks the beginning of this year's Salone del Mobile in Milan. Whether you're among the hundreds of designers who flock to Italy for the festival or you're at home scouring the Internet with a severe case of FOMO, it's important to narrow down your radar to the best of the best. You'll start to notice some themes amongst our top picks—many of them address and tackle current popular design themes, including food design, designing for the future home and extreme materials design:

REDO Super Supermarket

REDO Super Supermarket, an installation by Kolding School of Design, looks and acts like a supermarket. When you look closer, however, you'll start to notice the products aren't what they seem. The inedible products are all made from leftover materials provided by multiple Danish companies. Yum.

Ventura Lambrate: Via Ventura 6 Milan, Italy

Milesstones, a series of unfolded rugs by Jule Waibel

Age of Man

Form&Seek's exhibition for Salone is right in line with the collective's mission to focus on both the functional and poetic and appeal of design. Age of Man blends fascinating materials with funky form, showing off a wide variety of thoughtful objects, concepts and experiments.

Ventura Lambrate: Via Ventura 2 Milan, Italy 

Rossana Orlandi

Chill out in a garden and observe design in this eccentric space. During the week of Salone, the renowned gallery will be showing designs from Nacho Carbonell, NLXL, Fernando Mastrangelo and more.

Via Matteo Bandello 14/16 20123

Everything is Connected

A portrait of Norwegian Design, Everything is Connected tells the story of Norway's current creative scene by highlighting the role connection plays in contemporary Norwegian craft–from material access and innovation to production facilities.

Ventura Lambrate: Milan, Italy

LMX at IKEA Festival

IKEA Festival

IKEA is throwing a festival that explores the concept of living from different angles through the theme 'Let's make room for life". Meet IKEA designers, participate in various workshops, check out the Growroom in person, eat IKEA's classic meatballs at the pop-up restaurant, watch robotic artistry in action, or just party. Up to you.

Via Ventura 14 Milan, Italy

Material Futures

Central Saint Martins never fails to shock with their annual Material Futures exhibit. Graduates from the experimental program had the chance to explore potential future scenarios through materials exploration, and this exhibit is the chance to show the design world what they've been working on the past two years. Last year, we saw sea-bacon made from dulse seaweed, architectural building materials made from corn waste and a way to escape the brightness of our light polluted world. There's no telling what these creative graduates will bring to the table this year.

Via Privata Oslavia, 1, 20134 

#TVClerici at Atelier Clerici

During the week of Salone, this historic venue will be transformed into various installations and exhibitions focused on global future conditions of living. An exhibit we're particularly looking forward to is Design Academy Eindhoven's #TVclerici, the experimental design school's reaction to the era of fake news.

Via Clerici, 5, 20121 Milano

Player's Pflute by Jia Wu (China)

Lexus Design Award 2017

The Lexus Design Award 2017 encouraged designers to think outside of the box. This year's 'YET' theme encouraged the unexpected harmonization of ideas, like finalist Jia Wu's musical instruments made from vegetables. Four designers out of the twelve finalists (including Wu) worked with mentors to develop prototypes of their designs. The remaining eight finalists will have their ideas presented in panel displays. 

La Triennale di Milano, Viale Alemagna 6

Mediateca Santa Theresa

Holy Handmade!

Wallpaper*'s exhibition Holy Handmade! explores design as a sacred act and functions as "a non-denominational temple to the best of contemporary design". The exhibition features one-off objects designed around the holy theme and is fittingly held in Mediateca Santa Teresa, a former church. Talk about theme execution.

Via della Moscova 28 (Brera Design District)

Excavation: Eviction

After spending 12 years in his London studio, artist Paul Cocksedge was evicted due to property development. Excavation: Eviction is the artist's physical and visual reaction to this experience. Through five furniture pieces made by drilling down to the studio's floor and excavating material,  Excavation: Eviction explores the history of both his time in the space and the history of the building. Another example of a fitting venue, the exhibit is being held at Fondazione Luigi Rovati, whcih will soon be transforming into Milan's first Etruscan museum.

Corso Venezia, 52 

The Serious About Food Kitchen Lab

KitchenAid's The Serious About Food Kitchen Lab features the explorations of 8 architects and designers tasked with designing a concept kitchen that addresses looming concerns within the food design realm. Curated by Massimo Marzorati Massimo Marzorati, the exhibit acts as an experimental laboratory to explore the role of the kitchen through design.

Triennale di Milano, Viale Alemagna, 6 20121 

MINDCRAFT

The annual exhibit MINDCRAFT is displaying works from 18 danish designers, all centered around the theme 'time'. We've covered this exhibit already, but it's worth repeating.

Piazza Paolo VI 6, 20121 

Homecoming

Homesick in Milan? Airbnb and Fabrica are celebrating the theme belonging and welcoming with Homecoming, an exhibition comprised of installations individually designed by 19 Fabrica designers. The unique cultural backgrounds of each designer shines through in their work, creating a global display of how people in different cultures connect with one another.

Corso Venezia, 20, 20122 

Image of material experiments on display at last year's Satellite

SaloneSatellite

If you find yourself in the giant arena that is Salone del Mobile, be sure to hit Satellite to scope some young design talent. A wing of Salone with a much more concentrated focus on process and innovation, you'll see tons of works from students and young professionals alike that range from beautiful, technical to fascinatingly speculative.

Pavilions 22-24 at Salone del Mobile


The Banksy of Punctuation: British Vandal Corrects Shop Signs at Night

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Some of you can look at these photos and remain undisturbed:

But a portion of you see these and they drive you nuts. If you're in the latter camp, you've got a soulmate in an anonymous artist (or vandal, depending on your point of view) in Bristol, England, who spends his evenings surreptitiously modifying these signs with paint and stickers:

As "Grammar Nazis" have been a thing for some time, it's unsurprising that someone would eventually take action. What we'd like to see next is Graphic Design Nazis willing to go around correcting leading, kerning, tracking and mismatched fonts.


Design Job: Create Thoughtful Furnishings! Coalesse is Seeking a Furniture Designer in Munich, Germany

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We are looking for Mid to Senior-Level Industrial Designers with fresh ideas and cutting edge design skills to work in a dream location, our new Learning and Innovation Center in Munich Germany, and with a dream team of designers, engineers, and product developers! The Coalesse design

View the full design job here

3D Printing the Faces of the Dead

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Morticians are a class of unsung heroes in most societies. Mortuary arts dovetail technical medical knowhow, painstaking practical effects, and the excruciating job of trying to please grieving families. Preserving and presenting bodies is particularly difficult in cases where the deceased passed under physically disruptive circumstances. 

Whether involved in fire, car accidents, or visible illness, disfigurement can exacerbate the already difficult process of mourning a loved one. Reconstructing damaged facial features can take morticians up to a week of difficult work in order to deliver the open casket ceremonies many families desire in order to pay full respect. 

Now that 3D printing has gotten more affordable and efficient, Chinese funeral parlors are beginning to use additive tech to speed up labor intensive recreation. Reconstruction is typically accomplished using familiar modeling materials like wax, rubber cement, gypsum, paint, and delicate hand stitching, but Babaoshan Funeral Home in Beijing has started streamlining the process with full face masks printed onsite. 

With the rapidly advancing detail in both scanning and printing resolution, a full face can be printed in just 12 hours. And thanks to advances made by the government's 101 Institute, the 3D model can be developed from a single 2D photograph. Partial reconstructions take even less time. These techniques update, and to some extent sterilize, the eons long practice of replacing limbs and faulty features of the dead. 

As in many cultures, Chinese conventional wisdom finds death and death handling unclean and unlucky, but with additional governmental support and technological breakthroughs, the 3D printed mask seems to be taking off. Though other types of model making may be cheerier, giving mourning families more options for saying goodbye seems like an exemplary application of trickle down tech.


Russian Animators Hilariously Condense Popular Movies into 90 Seconds

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When you need a break at work, you'd probably love to be able to watch one of your favorite movies. But no boss we know of will look the other way while you screw off for 90 minutes.

Thankfully, the talented folks at Russian animation firm 420 have take a ton of popular flicks and minimal-ized them, not only cutting the run-times down to 90 seconds or less, but faithfully depicting iconic scenes with sparing linework. Next time your boss goes to the bathroom, you can easily squeeze one or two of these in at a time:

The Force Awakens

The Matrix

Die Hard

Aliens

Blade Runner

Back to the Future

If your favorite doesn't appear above, you can dig through their back catalog here.

Studio Swine Dreams Up a "Multi-Sensory Experience" for COS 

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For the sixth year in a row, fashion brand COS joins in on the Milan Design Week fun with an encapsulating exhibition created by Studio Swine, the design duo behind a number of beautiful process-related design films over the past few years (and whose films we presented at our 2016 Core77 Conference). 

According to the press release, the installation "will centre around a focal sculpture, emitting mist-filled blossoms that burst and evaporate on contact with skin but that live momentarily when met with textured fabrics."

Studio Swine alludes that this exhibition seeks to symbolize the optimism that comes from seasonality and the sensual aspects of minimalism and simplicity, something much in line with the philosophy of their fashion-house collaborator. "We wanted to encapsulate a lifespan of emotions in an instant. To create an experience that was fleeting, but in its time evoked joy and vitality, if only to remain as a memory," note the collaborators behind Studio Swine, Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves. 

The event debuted to press yesterday and will be open to the public now throughout Milan Design Week at Cinema Arti, a formerly operating movie theater in the heart of Milan.

If you aren't able to view the installation in person, there are also some pretty great videos to find on social media under the hashtag #COSxStudioSwine:

On a side note: we're certainly curious to know how Studio Swine has managed to create these textile-phobic bubbles—designers, any idea what materials or solutions might be used in order to create this magic? 

COS x Studio Swine's exhibit takes place at Milan Design Week 4-9 April 2017, Via Pietro Mascagni, 8, 20122 Milano, Italy.

Affordable Desktop CNC Machines Expand Into Textiles

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Within the hierarchy of designers, graphic designers were the first to gain affordable digital tools with the advent of the Mac. Then industrial designers, with the arrival of desktop 3D printers and CNC mills. Now fashion designers will be joining the affordable digital fabrication party, thanks to designer and inventor Gerard Rubio.

As a design student in London, Rubio watched "fashion students struggle with old knitting machines," writes his startup, Kniterate. "In contrast to the revolution that made 3D printers affordable, automated digital knitting machines have been out of reach due to high costs and size. This gave Gerard an idea: What if he could make low-cost automated digital knitting machines for everyone?"

Rubio then embarked upon his OpenKnit project to create an open-source digital fabrication machine that could produce garments. (We covered it here, and he snagged a Core77 Design Award here.) Now, some four years later—including a summer living in a Chinese industrial knitting machine factory to learn about the technology—Rubio and his team have a finished product that's ready for prime time:

The machine's expected retail price of $7,499 is comparable with a high-end desktop CNC mill. On Kickstarter, Rubio and co. knocked $3,000 off of the price of 25 early-bird units, which were snapped up immediately. The second-tier price of $4,699 then rapidly sold a further 32 units, meaning Kniterate's goal will happen: At press time they were at $268,000 in pledges on a $100,000 goal.

Fashion designers and firms looking to pick up a Kniterate machine had better hurry: While there are 34 days left in the campaign, there are only 68 buying slots left.


For Sunless Apartments, a Windowshade That's Actually a Lamp

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We're always happy to see a bit of experimental and homegrown Chinese industrial design; it is only by promoting young designers that that country will be able to shed their reputation as imitators. Here's recent industrial design grad Siyu Lou's Window portable lamp:

Intended as a bedside or reading lamp, it extends and retracts in the manner of a window shade (by rotating the knob on the side, not by pulling it). With the light source embedded within an unspecified flexible material, the user would increase the lumens by drawing the shade out further—a sort of inverse analog to an actual window shade.

We also like that the design is context-appropriate to China's current housing situation. With more and more folks crowding into cramped city apartments, "not everyone can possess a room with direct sunlight," Lou writes. His lamp is meant to compensate for that. "We always associate brightness with sunshine. When the sun shines through the window in the morning, we cannot only feel the brightness, the warmth, but also something emotional, which brings peace of mind."

Lou designed the Window as his graduation project last year, when he received his Bachelors of Industrial Design at Zhejiang University. He claims to have produced a working prototype and interestingly enough, the Window is currently up for pledges on crowdfunding platform Allocacoc.

Call me a skeptic, but I don't believe the product is actually production-ready; I'd need to see a video of it in action. But I'm posting Lou's project here because, as mentioned above, China needs attention drawn to their new generation of designers if they are to join the global design community in earnest. I'm not concerned about production; they've already got that part of the equation figured out, and now they need to develop more designers like Lou.


17 Designers to Look Out For at Salone del Mobile 2017

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There's still plenty of time left in the week to make your rounds at Salone del Mobile. To make the journey a bit easier, we've curated a list of designers to scope out during the show. The designers on this list use unique materials and demonstrate clever form design. Most can be seen at Ventura Lambrate, a venue that tends to focus on progressive and conceptual design, however others can be found at various Salone locations worth taking a trip to:

Lenka Vacková

Starting off this list with a bang: Blood tattoos. Really—this artist tattoos with his own blood instead of ink to protest the current fast fashion cycle. Vacková is bringing his powerful statement to Milan as part of EPHEMERAL_ETERNAL, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague's exhibition at Ventura Lambrate. Live tattooing is involved.

Via Privata Oslavia 3

Alberto Bellamoli

When wandering through the material magic that is Ventura Lambrate, be sure to stop by Form&Seek's exhibition Age of Man to check out Alberto Bellamoli's fresh take on a traditional material—Terrazo. The flooring material is reinterpreted into Bellamoli's playful, sustainable furniture he calls Collecta.

Via Ventura 2

Duccio Maria Gambi

As part of the SEEDS London exhibit, designer Duccio Maria Gambi is showing recent work from a collaborative research project. Gambi and his team used a combination of foam and concrete to create homewares of various shapes and sizes.

Via Venini 85

Chungjae Kim

Kim's optical illusion products and furniture are way more tame than blood tattoos, but interesting form still has a place in our hearts. You can view his collection at Ventura Lambrate.

Jess Fügler

Lexus Design Awards 2017 finalist Jess Fügler had the opportunity to prototype her concept for a ceramic rug with mentorship from designer Elena Manferdini. Keeping with the collaborative theme of 'YET', Fügler's 'Structural Color' ceramic rug is a 'static YET changeable structure depending on viewpoint'. The 12 Lexus Design Awards finalists have their work on display at the "Lexus YET" Pavilon at La Triennale di Milano.

Viale Alimagna 6

Jochen Holz

Glassblower Jochen Holz has a massive neon installation at Galleria Salvatore Lanteri. Its form is slightly anxiety provoking, but in the best possible way.

Via Giulio e Corrado Venini, 85, 20127

Sanne Visser

6.5 million kilograms of natural human hair is wasted per year in the UK alone. In reaction to this hairy situation, Sanne Visser designed rope-like bags made from human hair. The bags are a prime example of taking a natural material and making the most of it, and as you can see in the photos, they're pretty sturdy. They are currently on view at Form&Seek's Age of Man show.

Via Ventura 2

Claudio Milioto and Jan Puylaert, Ecopixel

Ecopixel and Allessandro Mendini have teamed up to reinterpret the timeless 'Alex' chair using Ecopixel, a recyclable material made up of meltable plastic pixels. Catch the colorful chair at Ventura Centrale as part of the IQOS Pathfinder Project.

Via Ferrante Aporti 9-21

Tom Dixon for IKEA

Tom Dixon has unveiled his DELAKTIG collaboration with IKEA that includes this modular sofa bed. The sofa bed is open source and hackable, meaning it is completely customizable. Its aluminum frame is modifiable and is compatible with various extensions, including lamps and side tables. On April 5, Dixon will give a talk at the IKEA festival about the exciting collaboration. 

Via Ventura 14

Anna Gudmundsdottir

We recently took a deeper look at Anna Gudmundsdottir's reverse engineered home goods. Her collection of minimalist products focuses on local manufacturing—she works backwards starting with production as the first step in her design process. Catch her exhibit Beyond Local at Ventura Lambarate.

Via Privata Oslavia 1

Yu Rong

It's 5 o'clock somewhere, and that "somewhere" is Yu Rong's collection of quirky wine goblets. His Ventura Lambarate exhibit After 5pm consists of functional and conceptual glass goblets that challenge both the forms of traditional drinking goblets and glass as a material. 

Martijn Rigters & Fabio Hendry, Studio ilio 

Sensing a theme? Hair seems to be a designer favorite this year. Studio ilio's take on the material involves an intricate printing process where hair is heated then marbled, screen-printed or scattered to create creepy-crawly patterns. Be sure to visit their exhibit, The Colour of Hair, at Ventura Lambarate. I encourage you to give their website a view, especially if you aren't in Milan—there are some beautifully creepy process images awaiting you.

Nynke Koster

Many artists use travel as an inspiration, but Nynke Koster brings that inspiration to life. Whenever she comes across an object that strikes her, Koster brings it with her to then create a colorful 3D cast of the object's form. The results are clean structures with immaculate detail that she refers to as her '3D memories'. Koster's exhibit Fragments of Time is currently on view at Ventura Lambrate.

Via Conte Rosso 36

Benjamin Bichsel and Nadia Zoller

At the Institute of Industrial Design of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, students are truly designing for the future. The school's exhibit Material Matters shows off projects the young Swiss designers have been working on. One project in particular that caught our eye is the work of students Benjamin Bichsel and Nadia Zoller. The duo has been exploring a way to transform kombucha scobies into a leather-like material. Material Matters is on view at Ventura Lambrate.

Privata Oslavia 1

LMX

LMX, a collective of ECAL students are live painting acrylic artworks with a programable machine over at the IKEA Festival. 

Note: ECAL has many other exciting student projects showing at Salone. Find the full list here.

Via Ventura 14 Milan, Italy

Stefano Panterotto and Alexis Tourron, Panter&Tourron

Another must-see at Ventura Centrale is Panter&Tourron's PASSAGES exhibit as part of the IQOS Pathfinder Project. The design studio's research project explores heat and color change through objects treated with thermochromic ink.

Via Ferrante Aporti 9-21

Catinca Tilea, Studio Catinca Tilea 

Catinca Tilea's #1minuteLamp installation at Ventura Lambrate explores the idea that anything can be turned into a lamp. Attendees are invited to create a lamp by simply adding materials to an interactive base. The activity is meant to challenge viewers' reflected images of traditional forms and to spark conversation around DIY culture, the concept of ownership in an age of shared data.

Via Privata Oslavia 1

What designers are on your Milan radar? Let us know!

Yo! C77 Sketch: Sketching a Washing Machine with Tools

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In a recent video, I sketched one of the most complex products you can represent on paper—a car. Let's take it down a notch. In this episode, I'll be sketching a front load washing machine. I wanted to draw something rather geometric to show you a particular technique of sketching with drawing tools. My very first boss out of design school, Aaron Szymanski at Evo Design, had this amazing technique where he could draw with straight edges and ellipse guides but still keep the sketch light and airy, not too tight. The way he showed me that he did this is by moving the drawing tool slightly as you go back and forth across your lines. This way, the lines feel sketchier. So I've brought out my Rocky's Modern Life ruler and an ellipse guide to show you how to work up a sketch with this method.

First, I roughly define the front face of the washer with a diagonal to represent the axis of front loading door. With the ellipse guide, I work up sever concentric ellipses to define that door and then define the rest of the front face. With that set up, I can pull the right side and top of the washer back in space. At this point, I can start layering in details. I'm working here with black prisma pencils, taking care to keep the tips sharp as I go, and I'm using both the tip and the side of the pencil. I'm also working into that with sharpie, opaque white pen and white pencil.

Try this technique out and see if it works for you. As always, I'll answer any questions you have below.

Yo! C77 Sketch is a 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.

This Spring-Loaded Corner Chisel Makes Short Work of Hinge Mortises

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If this innovative little tool didn't already exist, I could see it doing gangbusters on Kickstarter.

When routing out the mortise for a hinge, you of course have the issue that the router bit is cylindrical and thus the corners of the mortise have radiuses. No problem if you're using leaf hinges with rounded corners, but if you're using sharp-cornered hinges, you've got to chisel out the corners of the mortise. Thus Rockler sells this Spring-Loaded Corner Chisel, which registers against the sidewalls and makes the 90-degree downward cut with one tap from the hammer:

Here's how it looks in action (this isn't the Rockler-branded one, but this Dutch version by 24-7 Wood Easy Solutions appears identical):

Sure you've still got to pare out the waste, and the purist craftsman would probably scoff; but for the tradesperson who needs to bang out a lot of hinge mortises in a hurry, the $27/€20 tool looks like it would pay for itself in no time.

Design Job: Short, direct, and lively! The Architect's Newspaper, LLC is Seeking a Marketing Designer in New York, NY

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A NYC based media company for architect’s and designers is seeking a full-time graphic and marketing designer. You will be responsible for creating wordpress web-sites and designing marketing materials for conferences, in-house advertisements, email blasts, and more. We need someone that is pro-active and understands maintaining brand integrity.

View the full design job here

Reebok's Latest Sustainable Sneaker Will Feature a Corn-Based Sole

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The Reebok Future team recently announced their Cotton + Corn sustainable products initiative, which will include a pair of sneakers made from organic cotton and inedible corn waste.

The Cotton + Corn shoes feature an upper made from organic cotton and a sole made from inedible corn waste. This cute video teaser is the only visual that's been released so far, but we're hoping to see detail images soon. The sneakers' silhouette isn't as futuristic as last year's Liquid Speeds, but their pared down, low-key design reflects the eco-friendly materials used to craft them. 

To bring their vision to life, Reebok partnered with DuPont Tate & Lyle, a bio-based solutions company that developed the petroleum-free, corn-based material that will be used to make the shoes' sole.

Bill McInnis, head of Reebok Future spoke out about the overall mission of his team's latest sustainable endeavor:

"With Cotton + Corn we're focused on all three phases of the product lifecycle. First, with product development we're using materials that grow and can be replenished, rather than the petroleum-based materials commonly used today. Second, when the product hits the market we know our consumers don't want to sacrifice on how sneakers look and perform. Finally, we care about what happens to the shoes when people are done with them. So, we've focused on plant-based materials such as corn and cotton at the beginning, and compostability in the end.

We like to say, we are 'growing shoes' here at Reebok. Ultimately, our goal is to create a broad selection of bio-based footwear that can be composted after use. We'll then use that compost as part of the soil to grow the materials for the next range of shoes. We want to take the entire cycle into account; to go from dust to dust."

Hopefully more information will be released soon. 

How Brooklyn's Hi-Tech, Solar- and Wind-Powered Recycling Facility Works

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Years ago I saw something like this outside a convenience store in Seoul:

Outside of America, lots of countries have more than three measly recycling bins, with consumers trained to separate different types of plastic to make things easier at the recycling facilities. A local in Korea explained to me that after you're done with a drink bottle, the caps (polypropylene) go into one bin, while the bottles (PET) go into another.

Such attention to detail cannot be requested of Americans, of course. Hell, in New York City we don't even separate our plastics and metals (the green and blue categories at left are as far as we take it), and your average Gothamite doesn't know the difference between PET, HDPE and PP. So how do New York City's recycling facilities separate all of that stuff? 

To find out, here we take a look at the Sims Materials Recovery Facility in Brooklyn, which is partially solar- and wind-powered and employs a variety of hi-tech tricks to separate the wheat from the chaff:

Not mentioned in the video is that the Sims facility is constructed almost entirely out of recycled steel. Also, three artificial reefs were constructed to the west of the pier it sits on, in order to provide a habitat for marine life. The "40-50% figure Outerbridge cites in the video is disturbing, but at least the City is taking steps to make a dent.

A Personal Trainer in the Palm of Your Hand

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Activ5 is a bluetooth enabled portable workout device and mobile app that coaches user through low impact, isometric based workouts in as little as 5 minutes per day. It features a durable form factor that measures up to 200 pounds of pressure. The portable fitness device fits in your pocket and works to tones and strengthens your muscles.

View the full content here

Beyond Retro Design: People Want New Things That are Old, or Old Things That are New

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We're seeing an unusual twist on automotive desirability today that would be quite interesting if it extended to all product design. The twist is this: A subset of people want new stuff that's old, or depending on how you look at it, old stuff that's new.

Here's what we mean: In America, a company called Revology Cars began cranking out brand-new 1966 Ford Mustangs a few years ago. Ford licensed the original exterior design to Revology, who then creates the frame, has the body panels stamped up and drops a brand-new engine, transmission and suspension into the cars. This means you can now buy a SUH-WEET 1966 GT convertible, like the one pictured here, in brand-new condition.

Now Jaguar Land Rover has launched a similar initiative. In the 1950s Jaguar began modifying a handful of D-Types—the Le-Mans-winning racecar—into a street-legal model that they called the XKSS. Jaguar built 16 of them, and had another 9 being produced at the factory when a fire broke out and destroyed them. Jaguar never revived the design.

Until last year, that is. To make up for the cars lost in the first, they decided to build nine brand-new XKSS's, calling it the Continuation series. From what the driver can see, these cars are straight out of 1957 with the original body, gauges, the same leather seats and brass knobs, but with a modern-day engine under the hood. The engine sound in the video below is probably the most thrilling audio I've heard yet this year:

A couple of months after Jaguar's announcement, sister company Land Rover launched their own Reborn program, where they began locating, restoring and "remanufacturing" old Series 1 Land Rovers that had gone to seed:

They subsequently expanded the program to include the classic Range Rover.

Not sure if there's internal rivalry, but this month Jaguar upped the ante and is debuting their "Reborn" E-Type in Germany this month. These are restored, not built from the ground-up, and these may be some of the most beautiful cars Jaguar has ever produced:

While these cars are obviously out-of-reach by folks of average income, I wouldn't mind seeing this new-old or old-new trend applied to other original designs in the consumer products space. For example, after writing the History of Braun Design series some years ago, I became so smitten with their 1962 Sixtant SM 31 electric razor that I had to have one.

I tracked down and found one on the secondhand market that had been shipped from Italy. It's heavy and substantial, has an internal voltage converter so works on 110V and despite being over 50 years old it still works like it's brand-new. It's one of my favorite possessions. I paid $23 for it and I will keep it forever. The only thing I don't dig is that it still smells like some Italian dude's cologne. If I could have bought a remanufactured version, I totally would have.

Are there any classic product designs that you would buy if they were remanufactured today?


Tools & Craft #42: Combining CNC Routing with Craftsmanship

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When I wrote about CNC-cut plywood furniture last week, the comments we numerous and critical. I don't disagree. But the question was raised about what happens when someone with an appreciation for traditional design wants to use CNC to cost effectively extend what can be done by hand.

We make our Gramercy Tools dovetail saws by CNC'ing a walnut blank and then hand finishing it. The reason it all works is that the person who programs the CNC router to produce our handles not only has an appreciation of the type of details we look for, but also is a master CNC artist. This is craftsmanship of a digital kind followed by craftsmanship of a traditional kind that enables us to have such nice handles—not some magic bullet machine.

It wasn't easy to find a shop that could make the handle. The handle itself started out as a composite sketch based on actual 19th century saw handles and was modified and adapted to our dovetail saw and to what our testing thought worked best and looked nice. A lot of what we wanted to do was capture the design sensibility in both look and feel of an early 19th century saw handle. We think that the geometry we use, a combination of the lightness of the saw and the high hang of the handle makes it easier for a person to saw straight. But the ease of use also has to do with how the saw feels in the hand which is partly a function of the quality of the finish of the handle. We also think that the traditional look is important to get right because it helps put you in the frame of mind of the time period of furniture you are making.

One example of the detailing is that we thought the tiny radius that at the base of the horns on the top of the saw handle looked too industrial. We increased the radius for strength and then added decorative "file" notches to give a crisp demarcation line that looks better but doesn't weaken the handle. It's a Victorian feature that you see on planes a lot. The "file" is in quotes because in the first run of handles we would used a saw file to add the notches. That's the traditional way and it takes two seconds. Currently the notches are added as part of the CNC routing.

Once we actually had a proper 3D model we sent the handle out to bid. I don't remember the number of CNC firms who flat out turned us down, or the number who quoted crazy prices. I do know that the number wasn't small and the reason was that the companies that were able to do the programming to produce the blank didn't have the ability to do the hand work needed for finishing. And the companies that could do the hand finishing just didn't have the programming chops to make the handle cost effectively.

Finally, when our current handle maker said "maybe" I was ready to dance in the street (The Macarena if you must know - this was a few years ago). For the handle maker it was a chance to push his craft and we are so happy he did. The final picture shows an unfinished handle - as it came off the CNC compared to finished handle.

The point of this post is to show you from practical experience that CNC made doesn't have to be primitive or the lowest common denominator. A CNC router is a tool like any other and in the hands of great craftspeople great stuff can be made.

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This "Tools & Craft" section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.

10 Projects Addressing Social Design and Cultural Heritage During Ventura Lambrate

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This year's Ventura Lambrate themes are Social Design and Cultural Heritage—two very open-ended themes that invite designers to show work that address global change and/or represents their country of origin. We're happy to see most designers bringing thought-provoking work along these lines to the table. Within the two themes, we're noticing a few standout sub-themes, including shelter, food futures and waste management. From heat reactive sculptures to redefining the sausage, these projects stand out for taking Lambrate's themes and really running with them:

Green Solid Collection

Experimental Creations, a project that focuses on the creative process through experimentation with materials, is showing works by six young Japanese designers at Lambrate. For Green Solid Collection, design group AMAM worked with pine-resin, vegetable wax sawdust and Japanese Washi paper to design new innovative ways to use the materials within Japanese culture. We encourage you to visit this exhibition as a whole for other wildly cool projects.

Dispersion

Nila Rezaei's sleek commentary on oil spills can be seen at Form&Seek's Age of Man exhibit. The interactive mirror is coated with thermochromic ink. When the visitor blows on a sensor located at the top of the mirror, the colors change, 'fixing' the black oil spill with a pink hue.

Sheltersuit

Sheltersuit Foundation consists of a team of designers and volunteers hoping to change the world by providing proper coverage for refugees and homeless individuals. In addition to showing their Sheltersuit combination jacket and sleeping bag at Ventura Lambrate, they also plan to give away over 100 of their suits to the homeless on the streets of Milan.

Entropy Products Manufactory Royal Dux

This video by Vendula Radostov is currently showing at Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague's EPHEMERAL_ETERNAL show. For the spooky video, Radostov placed Royal Dux figurines in a tank of water and then filmed them as they slowly decayed over time. By focusing on porcelain manufactured in the Czech Republic, Radostov comments on the meaning of traditional handmade craft in society today. The intricate figurines decay over time in an upsetting way, hinting at an unsettling transition between old and new worlds.

Sensorial Shelter

Designer Mayra Sérgio's "sensorial shelter" project began as a desire to research what gives humans a sense of belonging. She started to think about our ideas of the 'home' and came to the conclusion that one's sense of home lies more in evocative sensorial experiences than an attachment to a literal space. For Sérgio, nothing feels more like home than a mug of coffee, which is what spurred her through the course of Design Week to create bricks made from coffee with the end goal of constructing a fully sensorial piece of architecture.

Good Lack

DesignSoil's exhibition at Lambrate is a fun take on repurposing products. Finding value in lost parts like a missing door or a lamp disconnected from its stand, Good Lack turns products normally deemed broken or unusable and transforms them with a simple change in perspective.

Future Sausage

This research project done by ECAL Master Product Design graduate Carolien Neibling investigates how design can influence the aesthetics of future food while also exploring alternative options to meat consumption, a potential necessity in a low-resource food future. On display will be Neibling's reformations of the anatomy of sausage as well as innovate packaging techniques. Although this project is actually showing at SaloneSatellite, it's certainly a worthy call-out!

SaloneSatellite: Hall 22 – 24, Stand S02

PaperBricks

A project that caught our eye months ago, this series of furniture by Eindhoven graduate WooJai Lee utilizes recycled newspaper pulp to create molds of structural material he uses to make the furniture. Not only does the recycled paper structure make for a hard yet wool-like feel, the Paperbricks project also demonstrates how responsibly produced materials can also prove to be quite beautiful.

Tradition & Territory

Targeting the manufacturing process in Mexico, Luis Vega and Mexican design studio Tributo aim to close the gap between the craft and production industries. For their collection of tableware showing at Lambrate, the group of designers connected craftspeople specializing in traditional pottery and wood-joinery techniques with small manufacturing industries.

Carrying On Carrying On

Textile designer Blake Griffiths' projects at the Form & Seek Collective Art of Man show tackle the realms of nomadic living and sustainability in intimate and elegant ways. One project entitled "Home is where you carry it" is a mat made of recycled and woven plastic bin liners as well as hand spun nettle. Griffiths made these mats to act as portable flooring for anyone who finds themselves intentionally or unintentionally displaced. Another project entitled "Bag to drag your life across the border" is a collection of sturdy bags meant for long journeys.

DiResta's Cut: Bin Cabinet

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In this episode of DiResta's Cut, Jimmy creates a storage unit that incorporates a bunch of old metal bins he found on the street. He gives you some useful tips for creating a router jig to cut consistent dadoes, explains when not to do math, rigs up some DIY steel edgebanding and finishes it off with brass screws:


Steven M. Johnson's Bizarre Invention #358: The Freeway Ferry 

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