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How This UX Design is Changing the Way We Can Learn One of the World's Fastest Growing Languages

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Voice Blox was awarded in several categories in the 2019 Core77 Design Awards, including the top Student Winner prize in the Interaction category.

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Mandarin, the official language of China, is spoken by over 730 million people across the world. From 2009 to 2015 alone, Mandarin education efforts in the United States doubled; and in 2014, over 100 million non-native Mandarin speakers were reported to be using the language.

The tonal distinctions Mandarin requires are incomparable to what we as English-speakers (at least, presumptively, English-readers) are familiar with. As the engineer and design team behind Voice Blox – made up of Yang Gao, Matthew Rice, Dougie Mann and Wilhelmina Crolius – has described, Mandarin is tone-sensitive; that is, its words are each characterized by one of four tones, which then signifies its meaning. "For non-native Mandarin speakers, achieving accurate tonal variation and accent is a big challenge," they say, citing being able to aurally recognize your mistakes and shift your pronunciations, the lack of intelligent technologies, and the difficulty of access to good language instructors as a few of the roadblocks to successfully learning Mandarin. "We are creating the first engaging, hands-on experience of practicing speech, based on the untapped strength of multimodal learning."

Voice Blox, the learning language tool the team designed, allows users to explore their accents with their hands. Not currently employed by classrooms (digital or physical), the multimodal, haptic learning system is the first of its kind. "Using simple shapes to guide a learner's hand," the interface "capitaliz[es] on the close connections of the auditory and motor networks of the brain," embodying pronunciation in a simple, physical form.

Through an analog, two-block design, speakers can easily and immediately compare ideal pronunciations with their own, concurrently self-correcting by comparing the two tactile blocks in order to at once see, feel, and hear themselves relative to correct tones.

As Mandarin becomes increasingly relied upon to communicate in the international business sector, the designers recognized that quality education on a larger scale will be required to keep pace. "We are in the process of fitting our functional technology [to] a single consumer product," the designers say, and have plans to integrate it "with a software-based curriculum.

Themselvesa multinational, multidisciplinary team, Voice Blox's engineers and designers (a native Mandarin speaker among them) are final-year students in the double masters program Innovation Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College London. By the time they graduate, the numbers of Mandarin speakers across the world will be higher, and the need larger for better instruction of the increasingly global language.

Voice Blox's prescient use of design to facilitate this education leaves us, ironically, speechless in admiration.

Learn more about Voice Blox on our Core77 Design Awards site of 2019 honorees



The Strange Ways That They Used to Transport Cars by Train

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Here's a next-to-last-mile problem. Back in the day, after all of the considerable design, engineering, manufacturing, sales and marketing work that goes into producing a new car was completed, automakers faced a logistical problem: How to get the product from their centralized factories to the consumers scattered across the country. In the early days of the automobile, when buyers were few, it was a viable option to stick two autos in a train boxcar and ship them off.

But as demand began to grow, the shipping capacity had to match. Sometime in the 1940 America's auto manufacturers, in collaboration with the railroads, developed a special car-carrying boxcar that would utilize the overhead space. At 50 feet in length, it had ten extra feet on the standard 40-foot boxcars of the time.

Loading the thing was a pain in the neck, as a car was manually pushed inside, then jacked up towards the ceiling at an angle to accommodate a car coming in underneath it. (While I initially assumed the illustration above was incorrect in depicting the cars' orientation within the boxcar, it is in fact accurate as the automobiles had to be loaded in via a sliding door in the middle of the boxcar.)

By the '50s and '60s, two- and three-level "autoracks," primarily open-air auto-carrying traincars similar to what you'd see today, were developed. They were logical, economical and frankly, kind of boring.

Of far more interest is the strange experiment GM embarked on starting in the late '60s. As they prepared to launch their Vega—a truly awful, hideous, forgettable stain on Chevrolet's past meant to mark their entry into the compact car market—they developed a novel way to ship them: Vertically.

Vegas were short enough in length that they could clear the roofline of train car when placed straight up-and-down. So a special train car was designed where the sides flipped down to form ramps. The car was driven onto the ramp, secured, and then a special forklift folded each ramp closed, with the cars hanging off of them inside.

In this manner, dubbed the "Vert-a-Pac" system, they could cram thirty Vegas inside a then-standard 89-foot-long train car. This went a long way towards keeping the Vega's shipping costs down and subsequent sticker price lower.

As most of you know, cars aren't meant to be vertical, not with all of those fluids inside. And interestingly enough, the Vega was specifically designed to deal with this unusual form of transportation. As the Car Lust Blog explains,

In order to be able to travel nose-down without leaking vital fluids all over the railroad—one of the design specifications was that the car had to be loaded straight off the assembly line, and drivable the moment it was unloaded—Vegas destined for transport by rail were equipped with the "VK5" option package. This consisted of a baffle in the oil pan to keep the #1 cylinder from being flooded with oil, a special wiper fluid bottle mounted at a 45-degree angle, a battery with off-center filler caps, and an extra hose in the fuel system. There was also a plug in the fuel tank vent and some plastic spacers reinforcing the motor mounts which were supposed to be removed by the dealer before delivery.

Like the Vega, this method of shipping—and of designing a car to deal with vertical storage without creating a fluids-based disaster—eventually fell by the wayside.

Who Knew? The Chainsaw Was Actually Invented to Cut Bone

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Born in New York City, I've lived in four of the five boroughs. In none of them did I ever need to touch a chainsaw. But after relocating last year to farm country, where the main house has a wood-fired stove, it was one of the first new tools I had to learn how to use.

And learning the tool has taught me that "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is complete bullshit:

- This Leatherface guy is supposed to be a maniac--but he takes the time to accurately mix the fuel and oil at a 50:1 ratio?

- You're telling me he starts the chainsaw on the first pull every time?

- He carries that stupid wrench/screwdriver thingy around with him, never loses it, and adjusts the chain tension correctly so he never throws a chain?

- He checks to make sure the bar oil reservoir is filled every time and never burns the bar?

- He never spills oil all over the handle and doesn't have to wipe it off so he doesn't lose his grip?

I bet 50% of the real Leatherface's victims escaped because he flooded the carburetor. Another 40% died of boredom because he needed to gap the spark plug, couldn't find his feeler gauges and spent several hours looking for them in various sheds.

Anyways I'm bringing this up because, while the movie is complete nonsense, the chainsaw's ancestor actually was designed to cut…into the human body, rather than wood.

Specifically, human bone. This is an osteotome, a bone-cutting instrument that was invented centuries ago and is still used today:

Way back in the 1820s, a German physician and bone specialist named Bernhard Heine looked at the standard osteotome, and had a crazy idea: What if the cutting teeth were on a chain that rotated? It took him several years to finalize his design, but by 1830 he had developed the chain osteotome:


I know, gross.

By the 1850s the Heine Osteotome was being produced by a French company called Charriere, and it came in this snazzy case.

It's pretty impressive that they were able to make something this intricate way back then.


I'm particularly impressed by the knurling on the handle. To achieve a wraparound texture on an organic 3D shape must have been quite the challenge.

Lastly I'll say: I wouldn't recommend buying the Stihl MS210 C you see in the topmost photo. The "EasyStart" feature is nice, but the thing leaks oil like a sieve, I had to replace the carburetor when it was only two months old, and it's just gone out again. So much for Stihl quality!


Supreme Irony: One of the Most Difficult-to-Construct Buildings in the World Will Focus on "Sustainability"

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The first Christmas after the World Trade Center was destroyed, I needed to get out of New York, and flew to China for a vacation. In Shanghai I got my first look at the bizarre architecture that would henceforth define the cities of the 21st Century. The Twin Towers, with their rational shape, would never be rebuilt; morphous look-at-me buildings would be all the rage.

Dubai is nearing completion of their Museum of the Future, intended to draw eyeballs during their World Expo hosting in 2020. Designed by Dubai-based Killa Architecture Design, the torus shape "represents our understanding of the 'future' as we know it today and for the next 5 to 10 years. In contrast the 'void' represents what we do not yet know, and that the people who seek the unknown will continue to innovate and discover to help guide humanity towards a better future, whereby (sic) creating the continuum of replenishing the MOTF."

As you can guess, the design has made it one of the most difficult-to-construct edifices in the world. The task of figuring it out fell to UK-based firm BuroHappold Engineering, who had to rely heavily on parametric design and BIM to get it done. Amusingly (to me), they started by undoing what the designers had done, to some extent. "The first computational task was to fine-tune the theoretical shape of the building," the BBC reports, "to eradicate as much of the complex curvatures as possible. These millimetric alterations, which took a long time to finalise, were undetectable to the eye – but removed a host of complications further down the line."

The full details of the hellish construction tasks required are detailed in the BBC link. But to nutshell it for you:

- The cladding is made from 1,024 fiberglass panels, of which no two are alike

- Each panel had to be individually molded

- The façade supplier required an entire year just to develop the production process for the panels

- The panel construction was so labor-intensive that only six could be made per day

- The more complicated panels "can take two or three days to install"

The BBC article describes the great pains taken by BuroHappold to get everything to come together, and I haven't even touched on the complications required in designing the diagonal supporting grid of steel. The engineering firm is to be lauded. What I find ridiculous is that the building, which will have a LEED Platinum rating, is meant to focus on sustainability:

- Single-use plastic will be restricted in the building

- The restaurant within will serve "alternative proteins and cultured meats"

- Solar power will be used

- Elevators will feature regenerative drives

- Parking lot will be kept small to encourage use of public transportation

- Etc.

I say ridiculous because: How wasteful was the construction process? How sustainable is it to create 1,024 individual panels that can take days each to install, or to come up with morphous floorplans that we rectilinearly-raised humans must adjust to? How sustainable is it to design something that you're not sure how exactly to construct? From a practical standpoint, what's it going to take to keep this building clean?

"Rather than gadgets, we are focused on the human story of the future," says [MOTF Executive Director Lath] Carlson. "We are looking at the big challenges that are going to be facing humanity, and the creative solutions that people might deploy to overcome them."

Is a big challenge of the future that we don't have enough weird-looking, ego-stroking buildings that only ultra-wealthy states can fund? I don't doubt that there were tons of creative solutions utilized here, but they were all presumably done by the engineers, not the designers.

I know, I'm out of touch. Architecture and design blogs are going to fawn over this thing; it will be Instagrammed, Tweeted, TikTok'd and Facebooked; selfies will frame the taker's head in the void. A psychologist would say I'm hanging on to the perfectly rational shapes of the Twin Towers because I grew up around them, and now they're destroyed, and I'm trying to hang onto the past instead of embracing the future. Beauty is subjective, buildings are Rorschach tests. And when I look at this one, I see a building with a hole in it.

Design Job: Level Up Your Career as the Global Industrial Design Manager at Catepillar

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Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of earth moving equipment, is seeking its next Global Industrial Design manager and has an immediate opening for a 10+ year experienced, highly creative and proven leader for its worldwide team. This role has the critical responsibility of enabling and leading Caterpillar to leverage a sixty-year internal industrial design consultancy to execute industry leading human centered design in earth moving and power generation products. This position leads highly skilled degreed creatives that continually ensure any product or component development led by industrial design, delivers deep customer empathy and value synonymous with the iconic Cat brand.

View the full design job here

Concept Car Shows Japanese Plan to Make Interior & Exterior Car Panels from Wood

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If I had to oversimplify the world's current industrial state in order to explain it to a small child, I'd say "Metal is expensive everywhere because China ate most of it."

I'd also explain that we can't just grow metal, but that we can grow trees. So that if it were possible to replace some things we make out of metal with things made out of wood, that would be desirable.

And sustainable. Particularly for a country like Japan, which is low on natural resources but lousy with trees. That's why Kyoto University, backed by the Ministry of the Environment, is heading up a consortium of 22 research institutes, companies and universities to figure out how to leverage wood. And one of the answers they've come up with is cellulose nanofiber (CNF) derived from wood pulp.

(CNF is the same stuff that the University of Maine, which recently 3D printed that 25-foot boat, is developing as a production material.)

The Japanese group is looking at cars, rather than boats; makes sense as they produce a lot more of the former than the latter. Their CNF recipe of herbs and spices has yielded a material that they claim is 1/5th the weight of steel, but more than five times stronger. "[It] can be used as an alternative to resin, metal, and glass materials," they write. "In concept cars, CNF [can be] used for parts such as door trims, bonnets, and roof panels, reducing the weight of parts by up to 50% and reducing the weight of the entire vehicle by more than 10%." Less weight means less CO2 emissions.

As proof-of-concept, the consortium is showing off this concept car, which they've dubbed the NCV (Nano Cellulose Vehicle--note that the order of "CNF" gets flipped around in translation):



Knocking 10% off of the weight of a vehicle is no small beer, and the bigger picture is that they'd be doing it with a carbon-neutral, locally-available material that could be produced from forestry and agricultural waste. In addition, it's "expected to develop the local economy by producing and utilizing CNF from local unused biomass resources. In addition, it has the potential as an alternative material for plastics and is expected to solve marine pollution problems."

If you'd like to learn more about the material or the project, they've released a video on the NCV initiative, which we'll embed below. (Warning: The editing is a bit slow.)


Best Halloween Costume for a Couple, Ever

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If I'm honest I think the schlong part is a bit much, but I found the overall concept funny.


Halloween Mask Challenge: How Would You Recreate Looking Glass' Mask from "Watchmen?"

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HBO's "Watchmen" is a new show yet, but with such a strong cult following from the comic book, I'm guessing many of you have seen the two episodes they've released. And any of you with a passing interest in materials must've wondered, as Polygon's Karen Hanputs it, "What the hell is Looking Glass' mask made out of?"


Meghan Kasperlik, the show's costume designer, revealed that on set they rotate between "five different masks," and most of them are non-reflective and rigged up for motion tracking, with CG reflections added in post. Just one mask is actually of a reflective material similar to what we see on-screen, and that one's made of lamé.

The reasons are obvious--lamé isn't see through, and the actor playing Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson) needs to be able to see. I can't imagine lamé is easy to breathe through, either.

So, those of you with soft goods skills and materials knowledge: If you had to make the mask to wear yourself to a costume party, how would you do it? Without being blind and oxygen-deprived?


Yea or Nay? Google's "Digital Wellbeing Experiments" to Get You To Use Your Smartphone Less

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It's hard not to roll your eyes when a technology company, whose profits increase the more you use their technology, tells you they want to help you use their technology less for the sake of your own well-being. But I'll pretend I can take this at face value.

Google has launched a series of "Digital Wellbeing Experiments" meant to "help people find a better balance with technology." These experiments consist of open-source digital tools that you can download. Here are the descriptions:

"Unlock Clock"

This is essentially wallpaper that counts how many times you've unlocked your phone today. I guess that like the screen on a scale used by a person looking to lose weight, the numbers are supposed to motivate you to drive them downwards. With both the scale analogy and "Unlock Clock," I see the numbers as mere information; I don't see any correlation to staunching desire.

"Post Box"

This one has the user punch in a specific time that they'd like notifications to appear on their phone, rather than having them pile in willy-nilly. I don't see how this is terribly different from putting your phone on Silent and placing it facedown on a desk.

"We Flip"

The idea here is that you and a group of friends all ignore your phones at the same time. When one person unlocks their phone, everyone's phones unlock. The idea seems to be, you all try to break the record of how long your group can avoid using their phone. I still don't see why this needs to be an app, but then again I am not the target market.

"Paper Phone"

This one's plan is that you select whatever crucial information you'll need that day--"favorite contacts, maps and meetings" etc.--and the applet prints out a little booklet with that info, and you fold the booklet up and carry it around. Do we really need the applet and a printer as the middlemen, could we not jot this stuff down on a notepad? Then again, I guess most people don't like drawing maps. (Although they should! It's fun.)

"Desert Island"

Here you're meant to select "only your essential apps," with the others hidden away, and you're encouraged to "give it a go for 24 hours." To me, this seems like confirming that you're only addicted to heroin and fentanyl, but can ultimately go without cocaine.

"Morph"

Finally, this one has you silo your apps into categories or modes. The idea being that you don't look at work stuff when you're home, or are not in holiday mode when you're at work. The phone knows which mode to set based on the time of day and by using its location software. Call me crazy but I think you could do this yourself by looking around and deducing whether you are in your house, your office or Fiji, and act accordingly.

Here's a video glance at all of them:

So maybe I'm not the best person to judge these experiments, since I'm not afflicted with the ailments they're looking to solve. Any of you smartphone addicts out there care to try these out, and say if they make any long-term difference?


Dozens of Schools are Hiring Design Educators Right Now

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Over the past few weeks many schools have been listing available positions for faculty in a variety of design departments, as well as department chairs and other leadership positions. In addition, some schools are seeking in-house creative professionals for their communication and marketing teams.

If you've been thinking about working in academia, now is a good time to get yourself out there. Below are some of the most recent postings:

Associate or Full Professor and Chair of Industrial Design - Iowa State University

Clinical Assistant Professor of Industrial Design (Two positions) - Arizona State University

Assistant Professor of Industrial Design - Arizona State University

Senior Designer - University of Maryland

Assistant Director, Multimedia - Harvard University

Assistant Professor of Interaction and Media Design, Graduate Design Program - California College of the Arts

Assistant Professor of Design History and Theory, Graduate Design Program - California College of the Arts

Assistant/Associate Professor - Product Design - Tenure Track - Western Michigan University

Full-time Faculty Positions - Hongik University

Department Chair & Professor, Interactive Media Studies - Miami University

Advertising Creative Copywriting Instructor - The University of Alabama

Graphic Design | Assistant / Associate Professor - University of Tennessee

Open Faculty Positions at Parsons School of Design, Multiple Disciplines - Parsons School of Design

Visiting Faculty- Interaction Design - Columbus College of Art and Design

Assistant Professor - Industrial Design - San Francisco State University

Assistant or Associate Professor - Industrial Design - Kansas State University

Tenure-Track Assistant or Associate Professor - Design and Environmental Analysis - Cornell University

Faculty Positions in Visual Communication and Design Management - American University of Sharjah

FT/Tenure Track Instructor - Graphic Design - Santa Monica College

Coordinator of Pre-College Programs - North Carolina State University


Find these and more jobs in our full list of Design Jobs at Coroflot



Incredibly Specific Japanese Halloween Costumes, Part 1

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In Japan, cosplayers can walk around in extreme costumes any day of the year. Perhaps in reaction, this Japanese competition goes the other way on Halloween: They dress up in costumes that are not representative of famous characters, but rather, illustrate the foibles of modern life in a capitalist workaholic society.

This is called Jimi Halloween, which roughly translates to "mundane/sober Halloween." Here are our favorites of the "costumes" that participants have come up with:

Person Who Spotted Cockroach Just Before Going to Bed, Immediately Searched for Improvised Weapon and Cockroach Escaped in the Meanwhile

13-Inch Macbook Air

(Note: He has keys on the soles of his shoes and a screen on his back, he lies down flat, then opens up)

Person Seated Far Down the Counter (7th Position) Signaling for Waitstaff

Guy Who Grabbed a Shopping Basket But Only Ended Up Buying a Couple of Things

Woman Waiting in Line Who Regrets Not Using a Shopping Basket

Guy at Haneda Airport Who Just Returned from Vacation and Feels Cold in the Terminal

A Speedreader


Person Being Interviewed on News Program, Whose Face Has Been Pixelated for Privacy

Hiking Equipment Store Mannequin

Actress in a Traffic Safety Video Pretending She Has Just Caused an Accident

Click here for Part 2.

Incredibly Specific Japanese Halloween Costumes, Part 2

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(Part 1)

A Japanese competition called Jimi Halloween, which roughly translates to "mundane/sober Halloween," welcomes costumes that illustrate the foibles of modern life in a capitalist workaholic society. Here's Part 2 of our favorites from this year.

Guy Who Blows on the Bottom of a Videogame Cartridge Before Inserting It Into the Console

Person Who Appears to Be Menacing But Who is Also an Animal Lover

Guy Who Ran Out to McDonald's For Coffee and Returns With Spontaneously-Purchased French Fries that Everyone in the Office Can Smell

Person Waiting in Line for an Autograph When Someone Cuts in Front of Them

Person Who Cannot Find a Seat in Crowded Food Court

Guy Who Doesn't Have the Right Batteries for His Remote Control

Junior High School Student Who Had to Stay Home Sick and Asked His Mom to Pick Up a Magazine For Him to Pass the Time

Recycling Bin That Has Annoyingly Been Clogged With Large Bubble Tea Cup

Guy Who Was Dancing Playfully, Accidentally Hit Hand on Corner of Table, and Learned the Resultant Injury Will Take Three Weeks to Heal

Unhelpful Person Who Shows Up at a Barbecue to Partake, But Offers No Assistance

Click here for Part 3.

Incredibly Specific Japanese Halloween Costumes, Part 3

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(Part 1)

(Part 2)

A Japanese competition called Jimi Halloween, which roughly translates to "mundane/sober Halloween," welcomes costumes that illustrate the foibles of modern life in a capitalist workaholic society. Here's Part 3 of our favorites from this year.

Person Who Must Photograph Food Dishes from Directly Above

Person Finished Eating in Fast Food Restaurant Searching for Where to Drop the Tray Off

Winner of 5th Prize at Company Bingo Competition Event

Person Who You Briefly Think is Naked

Person Stocking Up in Advance of an Expected Consumption Tax Increase

Life Insurance Representative Who Answers Questions With a High Degree of Accuracy

Unmotivated Person Hired to Give Out Promotional Samples

Housewife Disappointed by Uncooperative Family Members Making Laundry More Difficult to Do

Guy Who Cannot Fit Package Into Mailbox Slot

Person Disappointed by Snack

Click here for Part 4.

This Design Team is Using Legos, Stickers, and Playing Cards to Demystify Blockchain

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What the Block received a Notable Design Education Initiative Award in the 2019 Core77 Design Awards.

It's not that designers Cyrus Clarke and John Ferreira were necessarily sick and tired of the inundation of requests they'd been receiving to explain what the heck Blockchain is. Rather, the requests made them curious. They were struck by the frequency of hearing the same questions over and over. They quickly recognized a need to get to the root of the misunderstandings of Blockchain in an efficient way – that is, to design a system for its explanation.

Thus, they designed What The Block. Clarke and Ferreira developed the board game and workshop as a more effective, accessible way to introduce people to the Blockchain concept and technologythrough tangible tools and systems they are already familiar with – cards, tokens, and Legos included.


Early Prototyping
- An early prototype of the game, testing with students
What The Block Game Board - This is the game board designed for our workshops.
What The Block Cards - The full set of cards, including tokens, scenario cards, and smart contracts.

The designers lead the What The Block workshop, but consider it only one element of a larger, cohesive program of education and introduction, which is largely oriented around a board game. We "settle[d] upon a structure of a four-round game, with each round building upon the knowledge of the previous," say Clarke and Ferreira. The game "covers all the major concepts of Blockchain, from blocks and mining, to tokens and smart contracts." The physical game's cards, then, represent Blockchain tokens; Legos signify transactions and a Lego plate is the "ledger," which is the immutable and secure Blockchain record of transactions; stickers represent digital signatures, and the board itself is the "hub of activity," all recorded on the Lego ledger.

The game allows teams to become acquainted with Blockchain's digital technology and to experiment with the social interactions that drive it. In its third round, the workshop leaders deliver a brief lecture on the "future of value," as they call it, "to expand concepts of value from money to more abstract and less pecuniary measures." The capability for experimentation on the board continues, as the players are given more autonomy to prescribe values, mimicking the operations of Blockchain.

Facilitating the Game - Here we see John from What The Block, helping facilitate a trade during round 2 of the game
The Magical Mining Box - Winners of the mining game enter a golden ticket into this box, and receive a payout of Tokens. This mimics the rewards miners receive in reality.
Workshop in Kochi
- Participants playing the game in Kochi, India
Care Token - Here a participant has created a new idea of value - a "Care Token" whose value increases as people provide more care to others. From Round 3 of the game.

Overall, what the program is facilitating is an education. The designed system relies on the understanding that tactile engagement aids knowledge retention, and uses tools like lectures, slides, and stories to support the engagement with the exploratory and explanatory board game.

Its workshops range from half-day to five-day, the longer of which culminates with participants being tasked to map out their ideas, publishing them online in a standardized What The Block template for future reference. This finishing touch grants the whole program an iterative and open source genuineness, true to its educative principles.

A Lego Blockchain - Image from a workshop during round 4, showing participants trading and building up a record of their activity on the Lego Blockchain
Ideation Phase
- A shot from a team during the ideation phase of the workshop
Lego Melodrama - Teams use Legos to demonstrate the narrative behind their Blockchain concept
Presenting Ideas
- Workshops culminate in a presentation of concepts, deploying Blockchain to tackle a design challenge
Interacting with a Blockchain
- A member of the presentation audience holds one of the created Lego Blockchains

We're "seeking to use design to engage with people's pure curiosity," say Clarke and Ferreira, to "demystify a topic which many have found confusing." Since What The Block's inception, the designers have engaged people's innate curiosity all over the world, hosting the program out of various countries and communities.

What The Block ultimately offers us a much more approachable Blockchain – not to mention dreams of a world in which Legos are used to demystify the rest of the universe's obscurities. Designers, get on it!

Read more about What The Block on our Core77 Design Awards site of 2019 honorees


Incredibly Specific Japanese Halloween Costumes, Part 4

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(Part 1)

(Part 2)

(Part 3)

A Japanese competition called Jimi Halloween, which roughly translates to "mundane/sober Halloween," welcomes costumes that illustrate the foibles of modern life in a capitalist workaholic society. Here's Part 4 of our favorites from this year.

Person Who Forgot to Take Out the Trash and is Racing to Beat the Pickup

A Left-Handed Person Struggling at a Restaurant Soup Station

Fan Who Tries to Make Heart Symbol with Pop Idol But She Won't Do It

Person Whose Job is to Bring Microphone to Audience Members at a Q&A Session


Person Woken Up by the Delivery of an Amazon Package


Woman Who Bought an Off-Shoru (Off-the-Shoulder Dress) But Mis-estimated Her Shoulder Size

Guy Losing a Game of Rock-Paper-Scissors

Person Whose Eyeglasses Get Fogged Up Over a Hot Drink

People Who Were Helping a Friend Move, But Got Caught Up Reading Old Manga Issues They Were Packing

Person Who Only Eats Organic Food, Yet Appears Malnourished and Unhealthy

Click here for Part 5.



Incredibly Specific Japanese Halloween Costumes, Part 5

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(Part 1)

(Part 2)

(Part 3)

(Part 4)

A Japanese competition called Jimi Halloween, which roughly translates to "mundane/sober Halloween," welcomes costumes that illustrate the foibles of modern life in a capitalist workaholic society. Here's Part 5 of our favorites from this year.

Guy Who Wins Bingo But is Too Shy To Announce It

Girl Who Grew Up With Only Brothers and Only Gets Hand-Me-Down Clothing for Boys

Guy Who Washes His Hands and Dries Them On His Clothes

Person You Mistake for a Store Clerk When You Visit the Optician


Person Who Buys an Umbrella Because It's Raining--Then It Stops Raining

Guy With Difficult-to-Read Nametag

Guy Who Was Called to the Jobsite from the Head Office

A Right-Handed Person (the guy playing him is a lefty)

Co-Worker Sent to the Vending Machine to Get Coffee for Everyone Else

Elementary School Physical Education Teacher Who is Not Good at Exercise

Currently Crowdfunding: An Epic 12-in-1 Toolbox, a Skill-Developing Drone Game, and More

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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:

Created by a swordmaker, this line of chef's knives combines professional-grade blades with a beautiful Canadian maple grip to bring more artistry to the everyday act of cooking.

Billed as a "toolshed in a toolbox," this "ultra-organized" toolbox includes pretty much any tool you'll ever need: a hammer drill, drill press, jigsaw, scroll saw, circular saw, table saw, hot wire cutter, hot wire cutter, table sander, and mini-lathe. The ingenious UniGrip can be used with all of the above to transform them into handheld tools, while the top of the box doubles as a stainless steel work table for when you need benchtop tools. It also manages to squeeze in extra batteries, a fast-charger, an AC-DC converter, a worklight, and a protractor.

Interested in motorcycle design? This sketchbook is packed with reference materials, tutorials, and perspective guides to get your drawings to the next level.

Easily get a campfire going with this portable fire pit. The stainless steel plates were designed with 534 triangular holes to allow contained views of the whole fire. It comes with a handy carrying bag and a grill plate.

Two London-based brothers developed this innovative drone flying game to help beginner pilots boost their flying skills in a safe, fun way.

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.

An Innovative Art School and Comic Book Lending Store for Kids

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Walk into Loot, a second-storey space in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, and you'll see hundreds of comic books displayed on the walls. But this isn't your average comic book store; it's a reading, browsing and borrowing space for kids that also teaches art classes, hoping to inspire kids to start drawing comics themselves.

Although the space was founded by Joseph Einhorn, the man behind e-commerce website Fancy, Loot's emphasis is not on sales. While children (there's no adults allowed inside, unless they're with children) can buy issues for $5 a pop, they can borrow any issue they want for free, assuming they've paid the $30 monthly subscription fee. And that fee comes with free on-site art classes and materials.

Comic book fan Einhorn started the space both to share his 3,000-issue collection, and also to show kids (he has three children himself) that they themselves could learn to become comic artists. Hence the classes, which are taught seven days a week. "Our focus is to be an onramp into the world of comics for kids," Einhorn told Bklyner. And both browsing through comics and engaging in classes is meant to provide an early form of community for the kids. "Our biggest hope with regard to the classes is to spur collaboration, and ultimately help create some friendships."


Paul Levitz was patronizing the wine bar downstairs when he heard about what was going on upstairs. (Formerly the President of DC Comics, Levitz was naturally interested.) After investigating, he gave Loot's mission the thumbs-up. "Loot isn't really a comic shop — at least not yet," he told The New York Times. "It's more of a great art experience. With arts education in public schools fiscally challenged, it's great to have folks like this stepping up to fill the gap."

As for the name, "Loot" refers to the fact that the more comics children read in the store, the more they accumulate credit, which can be applied to the subscription fee. Creating comics of their own also accrues credit.

Interestingly enough for a man who built a successful e-commerce business in Fancy, Einhorn has decided Loot will have no website, no phone number, and no e-mail. All the store has is an Instagram account, with just two entries. If you want to learn more about the classes, you can physically visit the store with your child, or you can send a direct message to @loot on Instagram.

Design Job: Shape Up Your Career as a UX Specialist at Smartshape Design in Cleveland, OH

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SmartShape is a design and innovation consultancy. Our team works collaboratively within a highly creative setting while bringing innovative new product concepts to life. Our ideal candidate thinks outside the box to create smart and innovative solutions for industrial design challenges, creates models and prototypes to test & validate new ideas and has the know-how to optimize concepts for design functionality and manufacturability. No two SmartShape customers or projects are alike, which is why we take the time to understand our client’s needs in an intimate, consultative manner.

View the full design job here

"Lair" Book Documents Supervillains' Great Taste in Architecture

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Judging by their lairs, most movie supervillains do their undergrad in Architecture before getting a Masters in Megalomania. Their hideaways and command centers are always these crazy Modernist or Brutalist structures, coastally situated and with sleek living rooms, gigantic conference tables and the de rigueur electronic World Domination maps on the wall. Because no one would take Scaramanga seriously if he was operating out of a split-level ranch in Dayton, or a studio in Bushwick.

Miami-based architect Chad Oppenheim, who as far as we know has never designed a supervillain's hideaway, does know a lot about them. He's spent years working with writer/editor Andrea Gollin to put together "Lair: Radical Homes and Hideouts of Movie Villains," a 296-page tome featuring over 200 photographs, illustrations and renderings of the titular structures.

Like evil itself, the abodes of movie villains are frequently compelling and seductive. From a design standpoint, they tend to be stunning, sophisticated, envy-inducing expressions of the warped drives and desires of their occupants. Lair, the first title in Tra Publishing's Design + Film series, celebrates and considers several iconic villain's lairs from recent film history.

…From futuristic fantasies to deathtrap-laden hives, from dwellings in space to those under the sea, pop culture and architecture join forces in these outlandish homes and in Lair, which appreciates and celebrates all things villain. Lair features villains' homes from fifteen films, including Dr. Strangelove, The Incredibles, Blade Runner 2049, and You Only Live Twice.

By the bye, the items below are not addressed in the book, but are some deleted scenes I'd like to see from popular movies:
- Blofeld attending a series of open houses and asking wildly inappropriate questions
- Scaramanga dealing with a cracked foundation
- Syndrome's new driveway fails inspection because it's improperly graded
- Stromberg filling out the municipal paperwork to apply for a permit for a new submarine enclosure
- Lex Luthor misses out on a penthouse he was trying to buy, because a tycoon from Shanghai was willing to pay cash
- Darth Vader struggling to find a good concrete contractor

Lair comes out next week, and the book can be pre-ordered here.

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