I've got a thing for tool storage, which directly reflects my organizational failings in other areas of my life: I have no hope I'll ever be able to tame my desk, kitchen, refrigerator, bathroom, bedroom, or closet like those neat photos I see in the design magazines--my own are simply too idiosyncratic--but I still have hope in the tool department.
View the full content hereThe 'Barista Beetle' is a concept coffee machine, designed for the home and office, that pays tribute to Volkswagen's lasting influence on the wider field of product design. VW's unique style and personality has been extended to an interior product that has become part of people's daily lives.
GoPro changed the way we're able to share action footage, and we're now accustomed to seeing POV video. But this one here is a bit different. A fellow named Jeb Corliss took a rollercoaster ride with his wife, recorded it using a GoPro Fusion (which captures 360 footage) and stabilized the results:
Talk about niche: Lofty Pursuits is a Florida-based store that specializes in making "hard candies using equipment from the Victorian period. Much of our equipment was made between the 1850's and about 1910." When they got their hands on a rusted-out 19th-century machine with interchangeable rollers, they restored it to perfection and demonstrated how it was used:
Dremel's forthcoming DigiLab laser cutter, announced at last year's Maker Faire, is scheduled to drop any day now. The release date was slated for Summer 2018, and since it's now summer we just checked their website. They've not updated it with a hard release date, but we do see that they're still offering $1,000 off of the $5,999 price if you pre-order.
So for $4,999 you'd get a 40-watt machine with a 12" x 20" cutting area. It can cut through material up to 1/4" thick, engrave in material up to 1.25" thick and the machine's footprint is 32" x 20" x 8.25".
Here's the latest video they've released of the machine:
Let's just hope Dremel's lack of a hard release date doesn't mean we're in for another Glowforge-like interminable delay.
The Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Industrial Design & Human Factors (IDHF) organization is seeking multi-faceted, exceptionally talented, Industrial Design Co-ops who are passionate about improving the quality of people's lives through remarkable user experiences. Positions will be based at our Cincinnati, OH, Raynham, MA, or
View the full design job hereOf the many structures, Leonardo da Vinci designed, perhaps none made more ingenious use of materials than his practical design for an easy-to-assemble, self-supporting bridge. Here's a father and son demonstrating its construction in their backyard, without using a single tool:
View the full content hereWhat is the purpose of being aware of the hour? We gave it a thought, and we believe that, just like a compass, it gives us notion and orientation. So, as an inside joke between us, we made a compass of time.
If you've ever seen the Statue of Liberty in New York versus the replica in Las Vegas, there is one glaring difference that any artist, designer or fabricator is bound to notice:
The replica, at right, has a conspicuous and continuous seam running across the breast. Lady Liberty's torso below that seam is bisected by a vertical seam.
A more subtle difference can be seen at the base of the centermost protrusion in Lady Liberty's corona radiata (original at left, replica at right):
That little rectangle shows up on the U.S. Postal Service's 2010 stamp featuring the Statue of Liberty. Which means, whoops, whoever selected that image for the stamp actually chose an image of the replica.
As PetaPixel explains:
The Post Office had used Getty Images to find a suitable photo of the Statue of Liberty, and they settled on the photo by photographer Raimund Linke, not seeing that the keywords on the page clearly stated that the photo shows the replica in Vegas.
No one noticed until 2011. Eventually word reached Robert Davidson, the Las-Vegas-based sculptor who created the replica. This being America, by 2013 he had lawyered up and sued the USPS for copyright infringement. Then, according to AP News:
Postal Service attorneys argued Davidson's design was too similar for him to claim copyright.
Federal Judge Eric Bruggink sided with Davidson last week and agreed his work was an original design with a more modern, feminine and contemporary face. He ordered the Postal Service to pay $3.5 million to the artist — a slice of the $70 million the service made in profit from the stamp.
News of the lawsuit's success broke, fittingly, last week on July 4th.
Have you ever not been able to find some piece of material or tool in your shop, then given up and re-purchased it? You could fix this problem by following YouTuber and Lego enthusiast BANANENBUURMAN's example. He's combined a Lego train with tracks from TrixBrix and a 360 camera, meaning he can easily survey the upstairs of his grandfather's shop without having to crawl around up there:
Hybrid is a graphic design studio based in San Francisco. Our focus is on creating wonderfully engaging design–which includes: branding, identities, campaign development and strategy, publication design and production, retail and environmental, advertising, digital/websites, and packaging for clients like Nike, Apple, MOMA, Google, TED, Lego, Levis, Lucasfilm, Steelcase, United Nations
View the full design job hereNot very long ago, human beings' main form of transportation was an eco-friendly one: The horse. It ran on grass, and its "emissions" fertilized future patches of grass, creating a circular fuel system.
Japanese product designer Shunji Yamanaka points out another benefit of horse-based transportation: Companionship. "In the past, [horses were] a partner of people and also a vehicle." In an admittedly strange bid to recreate this relationship, Yamanaka has developed an electric scooter, the CanguRo, that he envisions as both transportation and a partner. "As a partner robot, it never leaves the side of its master," he writes. "It transforms into a vehicle that augments its master's physical functions—motional and sensory—and travels with the master as one."
It's an interesting concept, but I think it would be more useful if it could carry lots of things, like a pack mule. I'd like to see a design outfitted with storage/hauling platforms or compartments.
The CanguRo was developed in collaboration between Yamanaka and fuRo, Japan's Future Robot Technology Research Center.
The Middlecott Sketchbattle Experiment is back, and this time the Fight Club of Design is taking over San Francisco's Automated Vehicles Symposium to bring you a night of hardcore live automotive sketching.
Currently held four times a year during the Detroit Auto Show, the Los Angeles Auto Show the Las Vegas SEMA show and now in San Francisco, the Middlecott Sketchbattle Experiment is an automotive design sketching competition and creative community party, where today's and tomorrow's motor industry elite battle for recognition as the Middlecott Sketchbattle Champion. Both design professionals and students are welcome, and this time around, Core77 is proud to be a sponsor!
The San Francisco Sketchbattle will consist of two rounds of design sketching lasting around 30-45 minutes each. Following each round, a panel of top tier professional designers will judge the sketches to determine who goes through to the next round. This year, the judging panel even includes Tim Kentley-Klay, CEO and Co-Founder of ZOOX.
The sketching competition will take place during an evening cocktail reception with the Automated Vehicles Symposium on Tuesday, July 10th from 5:00-8:00PM. 0ver 2,000 executives and design professionals will be attending to watch the live sketching. The contestants are a mix of 50% professionals and 50% students.
0ver 2,000 executives and design professionals will be attending to watch the live sketching, so this is a great opportunity to mingle with design employers and business contacts. Many of the contestants from previous Sketchbattle events have gained internships or jobs as a result of exposure from the Sketchbattles.
The overall winner will receive $1000 cash prize, a Champion Title Belt, a Brazen Sports watch and media exposure.
The Middlecott Sketch Battle Experiment is organized by designer Brook Banham of Middlecott Design and and Frank Schwartz, founder of Advanced Automotive Consulting Services.
Read Michael DiTullo's report from the 2017 Sketchbattle at SEMA here!
Fox Broadcasting Company (FOX), a unit of 21st Century Fox, is home to some of the highest-rated and most acclaimed series on television. FOX has 208 FOX Affiliates, including 17 stations owned and operated by the Company, which which reach approximately 99.9% of all U.S. television households. FOX airs 15 hours of primetime programming a week, as well as major sports and Sunday morning news. Through the FOX NOW app, FOX viewers can watch full episodes of their favorite FOX shows on a variety of digital platforms, while enjoying enhanced interactive and social capabilities around those shows.
View the full design job hereWe made The Planet to manage open-plan offices and create a meeting room, lounge zone and working space. Imagine an ordinary office space with hundreds of people, buzzing around like bees. How can you focus on work in such an environment? Should you just shout over all co-workers while talking to your business partner?
Have you ever frantically designed a project over the weekend only for it to be shot down the following Monday? Well, Elon Musk and his team of SpaceX engineers feel you. In light of the flooded cave incident in Thailand, Musk put his team to work on Saturday designing a solution for the rescue mission in the form of a tiny submarine that could maneuver through the tight passages of the cave. On Saturday, Musk tweeted out the following details:
"Got more great feedback from Thailand. Primary path is basically a tiny, kid-size submarine using the liquid oxygen transfer tube of Falcon rocket as hull. Light enough to be carried by 2 divers, small enough to get through narrow gaps. Extremely robust."
Once the rescue device was complete the next day, the team tested it for a few hours before Musk got on a plane to Thailand. However, by that point, around eight of the twelve boys had already been rescued. Thai officials team deemed Musk's submarine unnecessary, as the method they were already using proved to work just fine and the third and final rescue mission had already been planned.
In terms of specs, Musk responded to the following tweet saying that the tube is only 31 cm (around 1 foot) in diameter—a few cm smaller than the cave's reported tightest points. One of the main goals of the device was to ease panic for kids with no experience navigating through tight passages.
Many people are praising Musk's humanitarian efforts, while others are skeptical of his motives, calling him out on Twitter for using the horrible situation as a PR stunt to gain global attention:
Either way, there are two morals here: One, timing is everything. And two, even Elon Musk and SpaceX—who freaking had the resources and manpower to bring a working mini submarine to life in only a day and a half and bring it halfway across the world—get rejected sometimes. Hopefully there won't be a need for a tiny rescue submarine in the future, but if there is, rest assured Batman—I mean Elon Musk—will be first to arrive on the scene.
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Source: ars.
In conjunction with the University of Colorado's Mechanical Engineering Department, bicycle parts manufacturer CeramicSpeed has launched an ambitious initiative: To produce a bicycle with no chain nor derailleur.
At this year's Eurobike show they unveiled Driven, a 13-speed "prototype" ("concept bike" would be more accurate, as the thing doesn't actually work) that uses bearings and a wicked-looking 13-ring cog that you don't want to slam your shin into:
Driven creates 49% less friction when compared to the market leading chain and derailleur drivetrain. A traditional chain and derailleur drivetrain contains eight points of sliding friction, which is generated from the articulation of the chain at these points. Driven impressively eliminates all eight points of sliding friction.
Naysayers and skeptics will say the cost, plus the additional weight of whatever housing system would be required to keep mud out, would nullify the efficiency of the design. And there's probably a very good reason that bicycle chains have persisted since their introduction in the late 1800s. But ultimately, innovation comes about by people and companies spending a lot of money to try out new things. So I'd say we learn what we can from this, and be grateful that it's not our money.
Plus I can't deny that if they get that pinion working, it'd be awfully cool to see in action.
It's a little absurd that it's the 21st century, and we're still filling nearly-empty shampoo bottles with water and shaking them.
We looked at some design solutions to fully evacuate a bottle's contents here. An addition to this series is the helpful Zero Waste Cap:
Of course, we wouldn't need third-party objects like this if the original manufacturers would actually consider how their products are used.
This is the craziest joinery system I've ever seen. Lamello's Invis system of knockdown fasteners consists of male and female parts that are sunk into your workpieces-to-be-joined. Once the pieces are lined up, a magnet inside of a plastic box is then attached to your drill. You spin the drill near the fasteners, and the screw in the male part starts turning. Here's a demo of a guy using it to attach stair treads:
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