Refit is an indoor/outdoor bench inspired by the relationship between humans and cultural icons. The bench recontextualizes objects with understood purposes into new forms of use. Visually it references ball cages, a form that appears in both superstores and memories of adolescence. The form expands on ideas surrounding mass production, while the material challenges cultural preconceptions.
If you're looking for the widest range of furniture projects to on view during NYCxDesign, ICFF is typically your best bet. The independent design world has crept its way into the traditionally larger-scale air of ICFF at Javitz Center, so in addition to your expected larger brands, we're beginning to see some of the young, upcoming design crowd trickle in with an upscale, and sometimes downright quirky, point of view.
The student shows also continue to delight us year after year, with 2019 as no exception: highlights include University of Cincinnati's "Section_001" class who partnered with industrial manufacturing to create some inventive designed objects using non-traditional processes and RISD's collaboration with Botswana-based studio and furniture manufacturer Mabeo.
It's safe to say in 2019, there's something for every type of furniture lover at ICFF.
If you have a passion for sports and the outdoors, look no further than this exciting mid-level position at Dick's Sporting Goods. Under direction of the design leadership, the Associate Designer will utilize core design skills, adhere to the timing and action calendar, execute production level information including information including 3D data, follow through with all steps for execution of the product from concept to post design finalization, increase the amount of projects executed with the
See the full job details or check out all design jobs at Coroflot.
As a jaded and longtime design blogger, I rarely encounter a new-to-me product category that seems genuinely useful. But recently I found one such class of objects and, within them, an exemplary version that I'll show down below by a fellow named Frazier Price.
The category of product I'm talking about are body-worn palettes for painters. These are functional, technology-free wearables for artists working on-the-go, or even whilst in transit. Internet forums for painters are awash in DIY examples, like this simple one fashioned from a piece of wood or Masonite:
Image via Svyatoslav Brakhnov Academy of Realist Art
This design features a lid and a wristwatch-style band:
Image via: Svyatoslav Brakhnov Academy of Realist Art
Pigments can even be stored in something as small as a ring:
Image via: Svyatoslav Brakhnov Academy of Realist Art
While fabricating a ring is beyond the capability of your average tinkerer, the wristwatch form factor lends itself well to DIY. Dutch artist Koosje Koene is the co-founder of Sketchbook Skool, an online drawing/painting academy, and her handy father Frans Koene created this Watercolor Watch for her:
You can see a video of Frans demonstrating how he made it here.
For those who would like a similar object but don't want to make it themselves, Adventurous Art Supply sells a couple of variants on Etsy for around $25:
Even mass market retailers have offerings in this arena. Walmart sells this Van Gogh 12-Pan Pocket Box Watercolor Set:
Image by Trikist on the Wet Canvas forum.
Going back further in time, we find this intriguing example below, which has a story behind it. Watercolor painter John Haywood recently stumbled across, and purchased, this brass box stamped "Frazier Price Palette Box" that unfolds into a functional palette complete with rinsing wells.
Image by John Haywood
"I came across this sketchers' palette quite accidentally and had never heard of the make before," Haywood writes. "The fact that it was brass, boasted enameled mixing surfaces, and like nothing else I'd seen before certainly got my attention."
Curious about the box's provenance, Haywood poked around on the internet until he came across a forum--and found exactly what he was looking for, a post from Frazier Price himself explaining how and why he designed it.
I have recently read the group's comments on palette boxes and mention was made of the Frazer Price Palette Box – probably time that I enter the forum as I am Frazer Price. I designed and had the box manufactured, in Shropshire, and first came on sale in 1985 and continued to be marketed until the early '90s.
Image by John Haywood
The box came into being because of my frustration with what was available for the travelling watercolourist. I was a publisher and whilst I was travelling extensively for Newsweek I would find time to sketch in one country before spending endless hours on my way to the next port of call and decided my time could be usefully spent by painting on the plane.
Image by John Haywood
I had a Gabbi box which was Ok but with only a curtain ring as a holding device it was uncomfortable. Therefore, over time, I designed a lacquered brass bijou type box just over 4? long, under 3? wide and 2? deep.
Image by John Haywood
The inside pieces were made from washable plastic with room for 18 half pans or with slides for paint from tubes, a water bottle and a divided reservoir for clean and dirty water. Two fold out enamel mixing trays one with a thumb hole enabling the box to be held comfortably as as a palette.
Image by John Haywood
It was launched in the Leisure Painter in 1985 and the advertisements had an endorsement by Rowland Hilder-the only time the great man endorsed anything- the selling price was £28.95 and with a couple of price increases it was marketed until '93/4 selling over 5000 boxes worldwide. It was also branded and marketed by Talens and Daniel Smith in the States.
Image by John Haywood
A point of interest when the box was first produced- the prototype costing £1,400.- I offered it to Windsor and Newton who initially showed great interest but then pulled out as they considered the box too 'glamorous' but asked if I would mind if they produced a plastic box based loosely on the FP box. I had no desire to go into mass production – hence the Cotman box* arrived on the scene.
Image by John Haywood
…All that's left now are a dozen boxes for the grandchildren and posterity. All my painting comes from the Frazer Price Palette Box and if you have the time click onto http://www.frazerprice.shutterfly.com and you'll see it at work!
*[Editor's note: The "Cotman box" Price refers to is, today, this commercially available design by Winsor & Newton.]
On his blog, Haywood mentioned a modern-day producer of portable brass-clad palettes, House of Hoffman. I looked them up and their products, designed and manufactured by a gent named L. Henry Fanelli, are pretty nifty.
The Sketcher I by House of Hoffman
The Sketcher I by House of Hoffman
The Sketcher I by House of Hoffman
The Sketcher I by House of Hoffman
Their prices are also quite dear--the Sketcher I shown above rings in at $1,225.
Lastly, when I was looking at this detail photo of Fanelli's fold-down, patent-pending "Thumb Hanger" for holding the box…
…it occurred to me that a body-worn palette would really be an ideal first-year industrial design school project. Here's why I say that:
- The object has clear utility for the end user, and very specific practical requirements
- It requires some human factors work for the interface (i.e. how do you securely hold it?)
- It's small enough that a student could manufacture a prototype in the school's shop
- The extant examples of this object span from $15 plastic Wal-Mart objects up to $1,000-plus luxury items, giving the students a wide range in how they want to execute
- At most design schools, there are nearby Painting majors who could be interviewed and used for testing different designs, providing important feedback
I'd love to see the range of designs that an entire class of ID students would come up with. If you're an ID professor who can pull this off, please do let us know!
Brought to you by MAKO Design + Invent, North America's leading design firm for taking your product idea from a sketch on a napkin to store shelves. Download Mako's Invention Guide for free here.
Navigating the world of crowdfunding can be overwhelming, to put it lightly. Which projects are worth backing? Where's the filter to weed out the hundreds of useless smart devices? To make the process less frustrating, we scour the various online crowdfunding platforms to put together a weekly roundup of our favorite campaigns for your viewing (and spending!) pleasure. Go ahead, free your disposable income:
This sleek cutlery set (chopsticks are available too!) comes apart to fit inside a tiny, pocket-sized tin—it's never been easier to BYOC. Made of stainless steel, the set is easier to clean than other reusable options and comes in a wide range of colors, including this cool rainbow effect.
Spruce up your knowledge of contemporary architecture while playing your favorite card game with this eye-catching deck of cards inspired by iconic 21st-century designs.
Your days of fumbling around with awkward, dripping umbrellas may be numbered. The TAGIT umbrella is made of sturdy, water-repellent fabric and features a magnetic buckle system so you'll get a perfect, highly satisfying fold every time.
CR8 is a mounting base for your bike, fitted with various attachments that let you quickly and securely mount a wide range of cargo: from storage crates to grocery bags and pet carriers.
This improved toilet seat design employs a patented hinge that eliminates all the hard-to-reach nooks and crannies where dust and filth collect. The result isn't just easier-to-clean, Serana eliminates another common toilet woe because it's far less likely to shift or wobble out of place.
Do you need help designing, developing, patenting, manufacturing, and/or selling YOUR product idea? MAKO Design + Invent is a one-stop-shop specifically for inventors / startups / small businesses. Click HERE for a free confidential product consultation.
Designed to elevate both the user's physical and emotional experience, abl transforms itself from a mobility aid to a personal accessory worth showing off.
In this interdisciplinary position the selected applicant will work on UX/UI activities for medical devices in Flex's Milan Design Center. The UI/UX designer's responsibility is to create a compelling, safe and efficient user experience in medical products developed by Flex. You will implement your ideas on different medical devices: from simple drug injectors with connectivity, through wearable devices to professional equipment for surgeons. You should feel at home both in UX and visual design
See the full job details or check out all design jobs at Coroflot.
Innovation design firm Artefact and international development organization Splash designed a pair of drinking and handwashing stations that encourage healthy hygiene habits for children living in urban poverty and offer a new solution for the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sector.
Splash identified a need for improved handwashing and drinking water stations in the countries where they work in Africa and Asia, but were unable to locate durable, high-quality products. The stations available in the market were time consuming to construct and maintain, and made from low quality materials that broke with repeated use. Additionally, stations were designed for adults, rather than children, with tall basins and sharp edges and corners.
Artefact and Splash combined years of behavior change research findings with smart industrial design to craft unique drinking and handwashing stations that are both engaging for children and accessible to local communities. Their inventive yet simple form also allows for local manufacturing and easy installation and maintenance.
Community is at the heart of the stations' design. The new drinking and handwashing stations are designed for use in schools and other child-serving, institutional settings for the widest impact in educating and inspiring healthy habits. The station designs ensure that children gravitate to – and drink from – a safe water source and separate drinking and handwashing behaviors, reducing the potential for disease transmission.
Through their Project WASH in Schools for Everyone (Project WISE), Splash will deploy these stations at more than 2,000 schools in India and Ethiopia over the next five years, reaching one million kids. Through Splash Social Enterprise LLC, their goal is to sell these stations to community organizations and governments as well. The stations will help consistently reinforce good hygiene habits and improve well-being throughout the community for both children and adults.
"The client needed a handrail. I accidentally ordered way too much tubing. My solution not only uses up all of the tubing, but has the added bonus of making it more difficult to vacuum underneath the stairs. I also blocked a doorway with the staircase placement, but that's not my problem, I'm just the designer."
"When using the bathroom, I want to be reminded that at least one extra cow had to be slaughtered to satisfy my whims. I also like to think of breasts when I look at the underside of my toilet lid."
"I could've just done this with a hook, but a) I wanted to be forced to use both hands when hanging or removing an object, and b) I wanted to spend a lot more money on materials than a simple hook costs."
"I like to keep these stair treads highly smooth and polished. That way, someone might slip and send their leg right between the steps. If they slip with both feet at the same time, it might result in a pretty sweet nut shot on that center support. #AmericasFunniestStaircases"
"Most leather things I carry are not heavy enough. Problem solved."
"What you want in a kitchen drawer handle, is for it to be really difficult to clean out when you spill sauce--okay, red wine--down the front of it. I'll call my handle design the Crumb and Cabernet Catcher."
"I love working on desks that I can accidentally drop pens or sheets of paper through. I've also always wanted a furniture version of the last-year-these-pants-fit-me-but-now-they're-too-tight feeling; when I gain weight after the holidays, I want to have to fold up an extra section so that I can fit."
"I like designing furniture, and I like Eames stuff, but I don't want to get sued. I also love this jacket I've got that has big wooden buttons. Hey--wait a second! I'm getting an IDEA!"
"When I take a key with me, I like to have hard wooden spheres of varying diameters pressing against my thigh from inside my pocket. It also looks cool, like I've got wandering nuts."
"The problem with coat hangers is, they're too easy to hook onto the closet rod--I get it right on the first try every time. I want a coat hanger that requires careful coordination to get it onto the rod. I also like to have sharp metal edges on the surfaces that I grab with my hands."
We first introduced Lisa Marks's Algorithmic Lace project in our roundup of this year's Lexus Design Awards finalists, and now we're taking a closer look at the Grand Prix-winner. The project—a bespoke bra for women who have undergone mastectomy surgery—took the competition's social impact focus to heart on multiple levels, encapsulating Marks's mission "to blend industrial design and forms of traditional craft, not only for craft revitalization but for better, more inclusive design."
Marks's interest in combining industrial design and craft began during her travels to Thailand, where she noticed an alarming wealth gap and began wondering how craft practices could empower less fortunate communities. "It was really striking to see the wealth gap. 40% of their population only has 2% of the wealth, and if they were to continue to lose handcraft the wealth gap would have little room to improve," Marks said. Her research led the Parsons School of Design-grad (at that time still a student) to design a series of objects that used parametric modeling to "knit" forms out of semi-rigid bamboo.
The flexible "fabric" Marks developed out of bamboo was used to make a variety of household objects for her Cada Series—which was a notable entry in the 2017 Core77 Design Awards—including blinds, lamp shades, and bowls.
"Looking at knitting as a global craft with no known origin, an alphabet of shapes was created that can be die-stamped in large quantities out of sheet material," Marks explained. "In this case, bamboo veneer, which already has a manufacturing basis in Thailand." The resulting pieces have to be assembled by hand as they are too fragile, and that's a crucial part of the process for Marks, who believes design is not only an expression of individual creativity but an exploration of existing design solutions that have been passed down in cultures around the world. Creating a dialogue between designers and craftspeople is an essential way of protecting those vulnerable communities. "As designers, we can contribute," she says. "We can design objects using these techniques."
To develop Algorithmic Lace, Marks looked to the tradition of Croatian bobbin lace. "We can create objects by thinking of what we can do with our hands, but not with machines. We can make lace with machines, very easily, we do it all the time—but, so far, machines cannot make three-dimensional lace," she said. She decided to harness the 21st century possibilities of parametric design and combine those with a craft that dates back to the 16th century.
Marks developed her first prototypes for women who have had a mastectomy and may not be able to find anything that fits them adequately. "About 40 percent of women post-mastectomy choose to not have reconstructive surgery," Marks said. "Many wear mastectomy bras and external prosthetics that are very heavy and create discomfort. Since seams, underwires, and traditional bras can be uncomfortable, with the Algorithmic Lace bra, you can create a three-dimensional bra that fits the body and honors whatever form the body is."
A woman must first get a 3D body scan, which allows a computer program to generate a basic pattern of lace that is morphed to the precise form of her body. From there, the pattern and features of the lace can be customized further by each woman. "For instance, some women want it to look more symmetrical, or some women may want more dense lace to follow the scar," Marks says. "The pattern is up to the woman and her design choices." Once the design is ready, Marks prints out a mapping of the pattern, applies it to a foam bust, and gives it over to craftspeople who create the actual lace.
"When we think of algorithms, we usually think of computers and the high-tech industry," Lexus Design Award jury member John Maeda said. "But the textile industry is where algorithms were first deployed as a means to realize new aesthetic choices in fabrics during the 19th century. Lisa Marks's Algorithmic Lace project not only feeds on that rich history but goes even further back in time to incorporate a 16th-century technique for weaving complex lace patterns."
Since debuting her prototype during Milan Design Week, Marks has been exploring manufacturing possibilities.
The idea of pairing anarchism and design work seems – on its face – to be a ridiculous marriage. After all, design is about creating things from scratch, and anarchism is about burning everything down, right?
Well, no. Anarchism – particularly the American flavor of it – is woefully simplified and misunderstood by people on both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The truth is that most of the furniture designers and graphic designers I've worked with in my career possess strong anarchistic tendencies. They just don't know what to call their urges and beliefs.
I've been an aesthetic anarchist for more than 25 years, after first encountering the concept in graduate school (thanks Noam Chomsky), then observing one of my cousins, Jessamyn West, an anarchist librarian. There's a chance you might be one, too. And while I'm certain that you probably should be working on something far more pressing and billable for work at McCorp, reading this short article isn't going to hurt anything….
The face of American anarchism. Josiah Warren is considered the father of American anarchism. Among his many accomplishments was the founding of the Cincinnati Time Store, where you traded your labor for goods. No money.
The Briefest Description Ever of American Anarchism
America's individualist anarchism is not about the violent overthrow of the government and its institutions. Period. Full stop. Instead, it is a tendency to eschew the enormous organizations – churches, states and corporations – that we have created during the last 250 years.
Why do this? While working with others is generally a good thing, there is some threshold upon which an organization becomes so large that it is capable of inhumane behavior – war, slavery, environmental destruction, mass extinctions or even just failing to treat its employees and contractors fairly. These are things that individuals are (mostly) incapable of accomplishing.
Anarchists like myself avoid working with these massive and dehumanizing institutions. I don't want to burn them down, but I also don't want to prop them up by shopping in their stores, praying in their cathedrals or voting in their elections.
That doesn't mean I'm opposed to making money, that I'm an atheist or that I'm uninvolved in my community. I just decline to work, pray and serve others via these institutions. Working with them gives them power, while working with the family architectural firm a few blocks away helps your neighbors in every way imaginable.
What in the heck does this worldview have to do with design? For me, quite a lot.
The books we make have every conceivable upgrade. We sew the pages. We use a heavy fiber tape to secure the binding. We have sewn headbands. We print only in the United States. And yet, the books are not outrageously expensive to print. Just a few dollars more than printing overseas. What is up with that?
Design for the Long Haul
You might think me cynical, but I contend that most manufacturers design and build their products with a fairly short-term view. The products are intended to have a lifespan of hours, weeks, months or years at best. I've spent my career in the business of books, tools and furniture, and I have watched their lifespans shrink dramatically. Books are bound so their pages fall out after two readings. Electric motor manufacturers use fewer copper windings. The triggers and switches of drills and routers are barely sealed against dust. Bearings are replaced with inexpensive bushings. Furniture makers use dowels or flimsy metal fasteners that fail in years instead of decades (or centuries). The finishes are irreparable. And their raw materials fall apart when exposed to even a little moisture. I could fill this page with a list of the sins I've seen.
As a designer of books, tools and furniture, I have zero desire to make things that are intended from the get-go to fall apart.
I started my career inside big corporations, and I tried to make quality things. I mostly failed. Most corporations are consumed with cutting costs, keeping the quality just good enough to compete and – most of all – making a certain profit every financial quarter. Convincing a corporation to take a 10- or 20-year view of a product and its profit is a fool's game.
I concluded that the only way to design and build things that last was to leave corporate America, start my own company (which eventually became three businesses) and run things like an aesthetic anarchist might. It's not the path to make a lot of money. (Tip: If you want to make money, go to work in the business of managing other people's money.) But it is one possible way to both design good things and continue to eat.
Here's how a snapshot of how an anarchist design/build firm works.
When you run your own show, you can be stubborn about the way things are done. (In fact, I think it pays to be stubborn.) If you want hand-cut dovetails, then you'll figure out how to use hand-cut dovetails.
Turn Your Back on Big
During Thanksgiving a few years ago, one of my in-laws commented: "Wouldn't it be exciting if some day your books and furniture were sold on Amazon?"
I took a deep swig of the box wine in front of me and said: "The day we start selling on Amazon is the day we start going out of business."
When you work with big corporations, especially as a small independent company, the rules are rigged. Big companies always win; small fish always lose. The only way to compete is to sidestep the scuffle. The companies I strive to work for are family-run businesses where the owner and I are on a first-name basis.
If I ever have a problem, I know who to call. And so do they.
Likewise, my suppliers are small independent operators like me. When I need to subcontract design work, I hire individuals – usually underemployed stay-at-home moms and dads. We bank at the smallest bank in town. Our accountant is a fellow woodworker with his own practice. Our lumber comes mostly from family-run mills. I know the names of my machinist's sons. Even my woodworking glue is made by a friend who mixes up the goo in his workshop's bathroom.
It's more work to find these people. Their work might be more expensive. But on the plus side I've never had a supplier or a subcontractor throw a monkey wrench into my business. That's because we all need each other and we all know each other. It's personal.
These anarchist ideas don't just apply to publishing, woodworking or toolmaking. We design and make a lot of things – including clothing. Here, an employee of Sew Valley makes one of our chore coats. We work with Sew Valley for a lot of reasons, including the fact that they are training the next generation of contract stitchers.
The Radical Stuff
All that above is just good business sense when it comes to running an independent operation. But it is also a foundation that allows me to be both radical and creative.
Here is the radical stuff: When you design and make things that last, they don't need to be replaced. That disrupts the overheated consumerism of our late capitalistic society. When the chairs that a customer has to replace every five years suddenly last 200 years, IKEA is not happy. But your customers will be thrilled.
When you are free from a corporate structure, you are free to choose better materials and insist on better workmanship. That's satisfying as a designer.
When you work with small suppliers and retailers only, everyone can make more money. Example: My first book was published (by the corporation for whom I worked at the time) in 2007. The retail price was $34.95. The wholesale price was $17. Amazon sold it for $18 and change.
What happens when you take Amazon and other discounters out of the equation? Easy. You get to set the price instead of Amazon. So the publisher makes $17 and the retailer makes $17. This is enough money for the publisher to continue to make good books and for the retailer to continue to stock it and sell it.
The immediate criticism of this model is that no one will be able to buy your product if it's not on Amazon. That's crap. If you make good things and can tell the world about them (thanks, internet!), people will find you in time. You just have to be happy with fewer sales, a slow growth curve and (eventually) higher profit margins.
Like I said, this isn't about amassing wealth. It's about finding a way to do good work and to make customers happy because they own a book (or chair or hammer) that will last them the rest of their lives. The side benefit to this approach is there are fewer crappy books, chairs and hammers in the landfill.
This business model also nudges you into other radical territory.
If you want to survive as a tiny business that has a slow growth curve, I think you should eschew all debt. This keeps the banks out of your business. And it prevents you from having to meet a monthly sales goal to pay the interest on a loan. To some of you this might seem ridiculous. How will you buy the equipment necessary to launch your business?
You don't. Start your business with crappy equipment that you can scrounge. Subcontract what you can't do and take a lower profit as a result. Save your money to someday buy better equipment.
It's a tedious way to build a business. But if you can operate without debt, it's almost impossible to be put out of business. If you don't have a loan (or rent) on your facility, and you don't have a loan to cover operating costs, then you just have to find a way to keep the lights on and pay your suppliers.
Zero Employment; Complete Creativity
I know I'm making this sound like a paradise. If you haven't shut your laptop yet, let me suggest one more step you can take as an independent designer: Don't hire any employees.
I make enough money to have several employees, but I don't. Once you start hiring people, you have to give up some of your creative work in order to manage people. You have to build an institution with rules. And if you do a really excellent job, you'll grow to be quite big and become a corporation that's big enough to really muck with people's lives.
You'll become the thing – a big corporation – that you ran away from in the first place.
Avoiding employees ensures your business will stay stunted and small. But it also ensures that you will always be on the front lines, designing and making things. As you grow, you can subcontract out all the stuff you dislike (accounting, shipping, package design, whatever) and stay focused on what you like to do – and what you do best.
I won't lie to you, it's a difficult path to walk, especially at first. But despite the fact that corporations continue to consolidate their power and grow, there are still lots of oddball individuals out there who want what you want – to do good work and avoid the bullcrap. You will find one another.
One of the machinists at Machine Time in Nicholasville, Ky. Unlike big machine shops, this small operation bends over backward for us every day to supply us hammer heads and scrapers. Fact: Small businesses care about other small businesses.
Some Other Truths
It's almost impossible to avoid big corporations, big governments and churches. I haven't found anyone locally who can build me a car or a computer from scratch. Sometimes I have to hold my nose and click the "Buy" button at Amazon. But like I said before, anarchism is a tendency – not a set of philosophical beliefs with rules and a clubhouse (the Anarchist's Club is a funny idea, however).
If there are enough of us who decline at nearly every turn to play ball with big companies, churches and governments, the world will change. At the least, there will be other anarchists out there with whom you can do business. At most, the world might start preferring "craft cheese" over Kraft cheese in a big way.
But not too big.
Want to Read More on Anarchism?
• The book "Native American Anarchism" is a solid introduction to the many flavors of anarchism in North America.
• Read about the father of American anarchism, Josiah Warren, his innovative "time store" and his book, "Equitable Commerce."
• For the spiritual foundations of American anarchism, read about Anne Hutchinson and her clashes with Puritanism.
• I've written two books that weave anarchist ideas into my furniture making: "The Anarchist's Tool Chest" and "The Anarchist's Design Book."
Christopher Schwarz is the editor and one of the owners of Lost Art Press, and he is one of the founders ofCrucible Tool. He works from a restored 1896 German barroom in Covington, Ky. You can see his furniture atchristophermschwarz.com.
Natural disasters caused by warming temperatures are typically associated with catastrophic consequences, but what if there was a way to harness the strong ocean currents they generate in a productive way? That's the question that lies at the heart of MIT Self-Assembly Lab's latest project, which explores how these forces could be used to develop sandbars that could eventually develop into islands and help protect vulnerable coastal communities.
Presenting their research at the TED conference in Vancouver a few weeks ago, Skylar Tibbits recounted how the idea has been developing for him over several years, since one of his thesis students suggested that mudslides and landslides could be used to build parks. "It has always been on my mind that maybe we could take these natural disasters—earthquakes, tsunamis, windstorms, mudslides, landslides, fires—and build instead of destroy," he said.
The team partnered with Invena, an organization in the Maldives focused on tech-forward solutions for conserving the islands, to develop a system of underwater structures that use wave energy to create sand accumulation in strategic locations.
First, a series of "low-cost, easy to deploy, and adaptable" underwater ramps are installed. As waves pass over the ramp, the force carries sand particles and allows them to accumulate in front of the ramp, eventually forming a sand bar above the water's surface. "Over time, the goal is that the accumulation of sand will grow into new islands or help rebuild existing beaches, creating an adaptable solution to protect coastal communities from rising sea levels," their project description states.
While Tibbits recognizes this will be a "very long-term project," he believes this could be a far better alternative to dredging or building barriers—which are "static" solutions for a dynamic problem. Having observed natural sandbars reaching over six feet in height form in just a few months, he knows this process could yield real results.
Growing Islands from Self-Assembly Lab, MIT on Vimeo.
The team installed a 9.8 x 9.8-foot structure in the Maldives this February and are currently monitoring it and collecting data to analyze the sand accumulation with the goal of installing a second experimental structure by year's end. "This is the first phase of a multi-year project with various field experiments and years of data collection all with the aim to create a system of submersible structures that can adapt to the dynamic weather and wave conditions and naturally grow our coastlines," the team notes. "We envision far-reaching applications for rebuilding and stabilizing heavily-populated coastlines and vulnerable island nations with our approach."
Each year, our Core77 Design Awards jury teams are asked to complete the difficult task of choosing a winner out of multitudes of extraordinary design projects, and this year was no exception. That being said, we have finally reached a consensus of winners in the 2019 awards!
We're excited to announce that next Wednesday,June 12th, we'll be revealing the honorees on our Core77 Design Awards site and here on Core77.
Fun fact: the Core77 Design Awards trophy makes infinite trophies for you and your team!
Our professional and student honorees will be awarded in a record-breaking 19 category sprawl, including 7 new categories: Crowdfunding, Home & Living, Consumer Technology, Personal Accessory, Sports & Recreation, Tools & Work, and Health & Wellness.
We wish the best of luck to all of those who submitted this year! Cross your fingers and wait for an email to come your way next week. For all interested, tune in again next Wednesday morning to see who's going to take home the bacon.
You can also check out all of last year's winners here!
Meet Norwegian designer Fredrik Tjærandsen's collection for Central Saint Martins' BA Fashion Show. Whether you've seen seen the transforming outfits—part party balloon, part couture—all over your Instagram feed this past weekend or whether this is your first time hearing of such a thing, take a look:
We were excited to learn that in terms of material, each bubble is made from about five meters of natural rubber—not plastic. “The company I work with sources the rubber from Sri Lanka, working with local rubber growers; and the pieces are made as much as possible from plants," Tjærandsen told Vogue in a recent interview. After testing the rubber bubbles on himself many times before letting models inside, the designer continued that, “There’s been three occasions when I’ve been inside and it’s burst, which is like a very big balloon popping.”
One of the main concerns with these outfits besides the potential to pop has been the wearability: Can they be worn multiple times, and if so, how? According to Tjærandsen, the dresses are in fact re-wearable—in both bubble and dress mode—due to a latch system he created that enables deflation and inflation by the wearer multiple times. “There’s about two to three thousand liters of oxygen inside [each bubble]. A human breathes 480 liters of oxygen an hour, so you’ve got roughly three hours in the dress. I started inflating the dresses after the show started, so the models are not in the bubble for more than 30 minutes.”
What is the practicality, you may ask? Well, imagine you're trying to survive the apocalypse and need to travel from one building to the next to locate shelter, but oxygen is low. Simply inflate your bubble and you have three hours of breathing time and a storage compartment for basic resources like snacks and water. This is what future-focused design looks like.
Anyways, Tjærandsen is keeping his latch system a secret for now, so we're curious to hear from our audience: How do you think these rubber bubble dresses work?
Bring ground-breaking professional tools to designers, engineers, and artists around the world as an Industrial Designer at Formlabs. As part of the Formlabs team, you’ll collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of designers, engineers, and scientists to make a significant impact on a rapidly-emerging class of 3D printing products. If you are passionate about 3D printing and delivering great user experiences, this job could be for you.
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Merge your passion for animals with your passion for design as a Designer at Petmate! As part of Petmate's design team you will generate ideas and turn them into solid concepts that engage and delight both animals and their humans with meaningful experiences that deepen their connection and interactions. You will deliver the complete experience, ensuring that the needs of both the development team and the marketing team are met, and the brand is accurately represented.
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JT runs cross country; he's a lifeguard at his local pool; he's excited to go to Duke this fall. He's a pretty normal teenager—with a very unusual job.
As the lead games curator for GameBender, a Scratch-based interactive gaming system, JT decides which of the more than 40 million Scratch-coded games, shows, and interactive experiences to feature on Scratch alumnus Jay Silver's new entertainment platform. The GameBender console is as much for gaming as it is "glitching" the experience with custom code. Filters help you quickly hack changes like turning everything into marshmallows, adding pinball flippers, blasting flower cannons, and more.
The GameBender system lets kids edit their games—and learn Scratch code in the process.
"I didn't want to make a game console," Silver says. "I didn't want to teach people to code. This starts with asking, 'How can people can feel inspired to learn things on their own accord?' Sixteen-year-olds are the best Scratchers in the world. Take it or leave it. So I thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool if our system was made by teens and PhDs?'"
Silver was a precocious teen himself. He was named Engineer of the Year at Georgia Tech, went to Cambridge University on a Gates scholarship, and went on to be an NSF fellow and PhD researcher at MIT. But he became disillusioned with the corporatization and the military industrial complex he saw dominating engineering.
"I was actually ready to leave, then I went to MIT Media Lab and talked to Mitch Resnick," the creator of the Scratch programming language. "He wasn't trying to convince me to join his group or anything, he was just showing me how you can program in this new way, and I'm like, 'Whoa, I'm in. Let me develop some stuff for you.'"
Silver spent the next seven years on the Scratch team, creating tutorials, advocating for more user-friendly side-on programming (instead of top-down), and making his own Scratch projects.
"I have a knack for getting people through to the first creative breakthrough, getting you to that first moment of interaction," he says.
Silver's side-on programming with photorealistic imagery, breakdancing, and hip hop helped people see Scratch coding in a new light—and get excited about building their own riffs with this easy-to-copy code.
Silver also discovered a knack for clearing roadblocks for newcomers. Running play tests for Scratch, Silver would see where young coders stumbled, and he'd try to add breadcrumbs that could help them find solutions to those problems a little faster.
"My process is to watch what the people are doing and make notes about how long it takes them to make their first basic creative contribution, something that they weren't told to do. I look at how they recover from mistakes when something goes wrong, who they look to for help, whether they keep trying, and if they seem to feel bad about it."
He went on to channel this special ability into his own project, Makey Makey. It's a simple toolkit for turning everything from bananas to cats to glasses of water into physical interfaces—wire up any conductive material to the unconventional keyboard to create custom "keys," and make the world around you an interactive part of your computer.
Makey Makey lets you turn just about any conductive object into a creative keyboard.
"I'm very serious about plug-and-play, closing that gap that everyone talks about between creating and consuming," Silver says. "We take special care to really look at learning psychology and how creativity happens. How do these kinds of things transfer? Well, they transfer socially, through confidence. You don't learn facts and now you're creative. You sit in with other people being creative, and you gain experience, and you're like, 'Oh man, I really am this.'"
Silver and his cofounder Eric Rosenbaum wanted Makey Makey to be fun, but not too easy. "It came with the alligator clips and USB cables, but to make it work, you had to look around your house for things that are conductive," Silver explains. "Building blocks can be a lens to teach that the world is re-formable." Makey Makey's Kickstarter campaign raised half a million dollars, and is now in MoMA's permanent collection.
Silver is using some of his standard play test trial-and-error tweaking on GameBender: He created "glitch" filters to speed up injections of custom code, is writing tutorials, and is working on a controller button that quickly pops open the hood of any game.
"We designed it for share-ability, low floor to entry, sociability. This is designed for kids to learn coding shoulder-to-shoulder, laughing in a safe space. It's not on a small screen for only one person to see. Some people can learn that way—in fact, if you look at coders now, it's mostly people who are good at learning things by themselves. Well, that's not encompassing of everybody. How can you make things more collaborative, more passion-driven?"
Silver, conveniently, had already spent time in the Scratch community. So when he started asking himself those questions, he turned to the most collaborative, most active Scratchers—teens.
JT discovered Scratch in a middle school coding class. He remembers his fascination with what was "basically a recreation of Minecraft on Scratch. You could actually see inside the projects, and how people coded them. Seeing it step by step was super cool."
But what kept him engaged was the community. "There were people from all over the country, a bunch of different ages, and it was just amazing to be able to interact and share my creations and play other people's creations."
Soon he was helping Scratch review and curate projects, planning online "summer camp" activities for millions of users, and working an MIT Media Lab internship.
"He was onstage at an MIT Scratch conference, and he just has such prolific knowledge of everything going on in the Scratch community, because he kind of took on the role of a mentor at a pretty young age," says Silver.
Now, JT sorts through Scratch's 40 million projects to decide which will be most creative to play on GameBender. He looks for "glitchability," projects that are fun to tweak with minor code interventions. "For an art game, that means you can change the color or look," says JT. "On an action game, we have glitches that let you change the size of the character, or what enemy they are fighting, or things like that."
GameBender adds "glitch" filters, like "Grow," shown here, to give gamers control of their experience—and learn about Scratch.
JT isn't the only impressive teen in Scratch's orbit. Silver also works with 20-year-old creative content designer Abi Web—"she's super collaborative, really aware of what's going on—she made this Massively Animated Projects Scratch project that included 12 other people." And lead glitch developer Will Clayton has made 100 games—"all original and super interactive and fast, some real coding work," says Silver. "When I wrote his college recommendation letter, I was like, 'Hey, this is one of the best Scratch coders in the world.'
"It's one thing to play test with teenagers. But when an engineer is building something, they're actually constantly testing," Silver says. "So when our 18-year-old developer Will has another idea for a new glitch, like a flower cannon, that idea isn't just coming from an engineer, it's coming from basically our user base. He shows this stuff to his friends as he's making it, and if something's not cool, he's not going to let it fly."
Silver has to go through some particular inconveniences to hire teens: They work as contractors, need time off when they have a big test, and get a lot more done during summer break. But it's worth it. "People might think it's something we're doing to be cute, but no, these are the best professionals I could find. They don't have a history of working professionally yet, but they are the world experts on what we're doing with Scratch here. It's important to have them helping us design for kids. Teens are the epitome of cool—they don't know what can't be done, instead they know how to feel what's important in society, and they know things need to change."
GameBender is live on Kickstarter through June 28th.
If you were to pull out your own old copy of a book from your high school English class—maybe To Kill a Mockingbird or Of Mice and Men—chances are it's riddled with all kinds of markings (at least if you tried hard in English class). The annotations were useful in remembering where you found an extended metaphor or a beautifully-written paragraph, with the added bonus of breaking the rules and writing in your book.
Implementing shared and annotated documents into your workplace routine is great for enhancing collaboration.
While there's no internal sense of rule breaking with annotating a document on your computer, it is still an extremely useful way to make note of something you find that is really working for the rest of the document—or maybe not so much. John Steinbeck probably isn't paying attention to what you write in the margins of his beloved classic, but the author of your workplace's shared document would likely benefit from others' input. And who knows? Maybe you will learn something along the way.
Seems simple, right? Highlight, comment, send. But not so fast: It's worthwhile for you, the author, and anyone else reading the document to put in their two cents.
Right now, you may be thinking, "Why bother with the extra work? How does it benefit myself or anyone else?" Short version: it's worth it.
Think about it—making note of the importance of annotating in this article makes you more likely to think about this section when you think about annotating. It's a cycle of highlighting information for readers to come. Annotation-ception.
When you annotate someone else's work, it is more effective than just mentioning it during an in-person conversation, or worse—glossing over the issue altogether.
Sharing documents and working on them together is a perfect way to show off your office's efficient collaboration. Annotating someone else's work is a great way to point out your perspective, which may consist of things the original author had not previously thought of. Your workplace has plenty of creative thinkers of different backgrounds and skill sets, and each of those perspectives is able to bring something to the table that others can't. So by utilizing annotation technologies and strategies, you can ground your thoughts and perspective with online highlighters or sticky notes.
Try to give thorough feedback during your annotations to help your coworker think about something they may have missed.
Like we said before, it takes more than just a quick comment for something to count as an effective annotation.
If "nice work!" was the only feedback you received from your piano instructor, would you really be learning the piano? This same line of thinking goes for annotating shared documents. While you guys are coworkers and this isn't a student-teacher relationship, we're all constantly learning and can ease that process by learning from others around us.
Not to say it's not worthwhile to point out good work when you see it. When you read something that stands out to you, make a note of it and help the author see something they maybe haven't thought of before. Flesh out any thoughts you may be having in those annotations, because there's a chance they could lead to some positive change.
While it may be nerve-wracking to leave a constructive comment, it will benefit the author and your workplace in the long run. Be straight to the point while still being thorough. Remember to be kind in order for your coworker to understand what you're saying and be interested in taking your advice.
When you see something you like, let the author know! Everyone likes being told they did a good job, but blanket statements and vague compliments won't do it. Hone in on a point or paragraph you really liked or thought was effective and let the writer know. Your coworker is likely to remember the gist of the point they wrote because you emphasized it with your annotation and gave the reader thorough, positive feedback.
Regardless of what your feedback is trying to achieve in the short-run, it's always coming from a perspective of what the audience wants to see in the future. Giving positive feedback works as a reinforcer of good habits. Conversely, when you give constructive criticism, give your coworker some ideas as to how they can fix this and how they could do better in the future.
Online content collaboration is certainly different from in-person communication.
Since content collaboration is often done online, it's important to keep in mind some of the caveats that come with working in this online world.
Modern technology has made daily life so much easier, and 21st century technology advancements have certainly permeated through most workforces. When sharing documents with your workplace, be sure to utilize all of the built-in technologies the platforms you are using have to offer. Lay on that highlight, maybe even some color-coding! For example, Dropbox Paper has several tools to make annotating and commenting on work in progress simple. Additionally, Dropbox allows you to preview and annotate shared documents without having to have the native application installed (e.g.PowerPoint, Word, Acrobat, etc).
Because much of the workspace is online, it's possible you may be collaborating on a project without speaking to each other in person. There's a few things to keep in mind with this. For one, there's no way to convey tone when you're not using your voice. So try not to sound snarky when leaving comments, and when you think a coworker might sound a little too critical when annotating work done by you, try not to think the worst. Being conscientious and level-headed can help avoid unnecessary roadblocks.
Now, you and your workplace are well-versed in annotations. After seeing the benefits that come from collaboration, you can consider implementing some of these techniques into your routine.
What other questions do you have about annotating shared documents? Let us know in the comments!
This is a sponsored post for Dropbox. All opinions are my own. Dropbox is not affiliated with nor endorses any other products or services mentioned.
Mind-numbing and hard to read, receipts are more often than not just a piece of non-recyclable paper that we toss out as soon as we get home. But buried in those lines of non-hierarchical text is a wealth of information that could help us get a handle on our spending—if we could make better sense of it.
Susie Lu, a senior data visualization engineer at Netflix who also pens a great comic, has redesigned the ubiquitous receipt to help shoppers reach insights about their spending. "I was compelled to think of ways that data visualization could be used to redesign everyday experiences," Lu told Fast Company. "Of the use cases I had brainstormed, the receipt was the idea I was most excited to play with first."
The result is divided into two sections: On top, a bubble chart bunches spending by category, while the itemized list below includes a bar chart letting you know how expensive an item was in relation to other items from the same category. "I found it [most] useful to understand by category how I spent my money," said Lu. "I would be interested in seeing this over multiple grocery trips to see how the trend changed week over week.
Lu used a thermal printer to create the prototype but ran into some issues. For example, the printer couldn't print horizontal lines so she had to resort to "visual tricks at the pixel level," as Fast Company points out.
Further iterations might incorporate more information, like best-by dates, an estimated carbon footprint for each item (especially useful in keeping that beef habit in check, as one Twitter comment aptly pointed out), or a QR code that lets shoppers view the data on their smartphone. Having access to this kind of information digitally might make the most sense, especially given the limitations of the printing process. Although, do we really want to be generating even more data than we already are?
TEAGUE is built on a strong foundation of creativity, but successful innovation in the realm of global aviation also requires technically savvy, hyper-organized multi-taskers—people who are adept at juggling shifting priorities and who understand the importance of keeping clients happy. Teague's Production Designer is responsible for producing technical and visual information for a large range of graphic art. The position prioritizes project results that are on-time, meet or exceed client expect
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