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How to Cast Clear Resin Parts

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Industrial designer Eric Strebel got a super-cool commission from a client who restores vintage items like this soundboard:


What was needed were the clear plastic windows that cover the VU meters.

As these parts are no longer manufactured, Strebel was tasked with somehow replacing them in his shop.

Strebel figured he could use his ID know-how to create silicone molds from one of the surviving parts, then cast them in clear resin.

As he demonstrates the procedure below, he gives you plenty of useful tips along the way: Everything from how to restore and repair the master part before making the mold, to a cool trick for casting labeling information into the mold itself for future reference, to using a shop machine as an impromptu vibrating-bubble-getter-outer.

Here's how he did it all:

Great results!



Design Job: Advocate for Progressive Campaigns as the VP, Digital Creative at BerlinRosen in New York, NY

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The Digital Advocacy team at BerlinRosen powers the digital organizing work behind the nation’s most urgent and ambitious progressive campaigns. Immigration. Workers’ rights. Reproductive justice. Clean energy. Criminal justice reform. Voting rights. From the steps of the Supreme Court, to the border in Texas, to the rivers of Colorado, our team builds momentum and drives action with sharp digital strategy, advertising, social media and online organizing. We help our clients get results—when the stakes are at their highest and the whole nation is watching. The VP, Digital Creative--our first ever--will lead the creative direction of our largest, most impactful campaigns, including pitching innovative digital strategy and media production, advertising, social media and online organizing.

View the full design job here

Israeli Company Figures Out How to Turn Household Garbage Into Injection-Moldable Thermoplastic

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When I moved to the rural county I now live in, I learned they were several years into their "Single-stream recycling" initiative. All household garbage--organic materials, plastics, metals, whatever--went into the same bag. A nearby recycling facility held magic machines that tore the bags open and sorted the trash using a multitude of technologies, then recycled everything recyclable. I was in awe when I watched the company's presentation video.

The program was canceled after just a couple of years. Single-stream recycling didn't work. The expensive and difficult-to-maintain machines jammed up. People threw unpredictable items like garden hoses and entire bicycles into the trash. Certain metals were easy enough to extract; not so for plastic and paper combined with organic waste. Materials that could be separated on paper couldn't be separated, at least not profitably, in the real world.


However, an Israeli company called UBQ Materials appears to have cracked the problem. At their facility in the Negev Desert, truckload after truckload of unsorted household garbage is dropped off. Metals and glass are separated and recycled, as is common at a facility like this. What's uncommon is that everything else--plastics, paper, food waste, you name it--is all transformed into an entirely new material called UBQ.

"In UBQ, nothing goes to waste," Jack "Tato" Bigio, UBQ's CEO, told The Washington Post. Even more stunningly, "There's no water in the process, so it's really efficient in terms of the environment."

What's the "magic" behind this? Executives are coy, but biotechnology expert Oded Shoseyov, a Hebrew University professor who has consulted for UBQ, says melting plastics and waste creates a homogeneous substance strengthened by fibers in the organic ingredients.

In a nutshell, the untreated garbage is shredded and ground into confetti; that confetti is melted and reconstituted as thermoplastic strands; those strands are cut into pellets; and the pellets can then be sold--profitably--to manufacturing companies. That's because the manufacturing companies can dump the pellets into a hopper, just as with regular plastic nurdles, and injection mold the stuff.

In other words, you have fresh plastic without needing to produce it from petroleum. And it can be recycled multiple times.

UBQ says its material doesn't break down and can have more than half a dozen lives, unlike most plastics, which can be recycled only once or twice because they degrade. Research has shown that additives can also be blended in to provide flame retardant or UV protection.

The material most resembles plastic (though it can also be "tuned" to resemble wood and brick, as well). UBQ is already selling their eponymous product to a company that uses it to make, fittingly, recycling bins.

By the bye, if you're wondering how they wind up producing pellets of a consistent color: The color selection actually starts prior to the production of the thermoplastic noodles, which are then produced in desired colors. Naturally, the company won't reveal how they do it.

Writes the company:

Our technology is an extraordinary solution to waste management that creates a regenerative source of raw materials to supply increasing global materials demand.
We are closing the loop on unsustainable waste disposal, providing a path to a truly circular economy.

The UBQ Process is:

- Patented worldwide
- Closed-loop
- Climate-positive
- Energy efficient
- Zero residual waste
- Zero emissions
- Zero water consumption

These advantages result in an easily scalable process which we aim to expand globally.

Here's a video of their process:



You Definitely Have Time to Watch This Video of a 1.82-Second Pit Stop

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Since delivery company DHL wants you to know they'll deliver your packages quickly, it makes sense that they give out awards to the fastest Formula 1 pit crews in the game.

In this year's Brazilian Gran Prix, the Red Bull Racing team broke the record for the DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award. Watch as these 16 guys get the job done in a blistering 1.8 seconds:

When I go to my local Jiffy Lube to get the oil changed, there's no part of that process--from opening the door to declining the service "extras" to putting my credit card in the machine--that takes less time than this.

Portable Laser Engraver is a Smash Hit on Kickstarter

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Apparently there's a market for folks who want laser engraving, but don't want to step up to a full-size lasercutter. A Chinese company called Shenzhen Hingin Tech Co., Ltd. has been producing this small, somewhat gimmicky-looking tripod-based tool they call the LaserPecker:


Now the company is releasing an upgrade with a base and motorized stalk, called the LaserPecker Pro:


When it went live on Kickstarter last week, it was funded in just 14 minutes. Part of that is down to their low target goal of $10,000, and the Early Bird buy-in price ($269 versus the $399 it's expected to retail for). But there's no denying that there's high demand for the product: At press time they were up to $274,186.

If you're in the market, there's still 23 days left to pledge.


As Cars Get Safer, Why are Crashes Increasing?

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From 1970 to now, the U.S. population went from 205.1 million people to 320.7 million.

Since we Americans are a car-heavy culture, you'd think that the amount of traffic fatalities would have increased along with the population in that time. But it hasn't:

Cars have obviously gotten much safer in that time. What you'd have drove in 1970 would be called a deathtrap compared to today's cars, featuring their ABS, airbags, automatic braking, crumple zones, et cetera.

If we zoom in on the latter end of that chart above (which ends with the last year we could find available data), we can see that traffic fatalities have started to tick back upwards. However, they're not approaching the horrific figures of the 1970s, and they appear more or less stable, within a range of roughly 5,000.

So here's the stat that really surprised me: While motor vehicle fatalities appear relatively stable, motor vehicle crashes are increasing steadily:

In particular I consider that jump from 2015 to 2016, of nearly a million crashes, noteworthy.

So what's the culprit? My first guess would be distracted driving, as many of us Americans can't seem to get our smartphones out of our faces. But this chart shows that the total percentage of crashes caused by distracted driving remained stable from 2012 to 2014, at 16%, and even decreased in 2015:

As for 2016, the NHTSA reports that "Distraction-related deaths decreased by 2.2 percent." Note that they said "deaths," not overall "crashes." I could not find stats on overall distraction-related crashes. They did, however, state that while "distracted driving and drowsy driving fatalities declined…deaths related to other reckless behaviors – including speeding, alcohol impairment, and not wearing seat belts – continued to increase. Motorcyclist and pedestrian deaths accounted for more than a third of the year-to-year increase."

So, some takeaways:

- Less people than in previous decades are dying in car crashes.
- You should still be careful, as the overall amount of car crashes is increasing.
- People are still dying for stupid reasons like driving drunk or not wearing a seatbelt.

But the most disappointing stats I encountered in the NHTSA's report from that year were these:

- Pedestrian deaths (5,987 fatalities – the highest number since 1990) increased by 9.0 percent; and
- Bicyclist deaths (840 fatalities – the highest number since 1991) increased by 1.3 percent.

So while we're killing ourselves and fellow motorists or passengers less with our cars, we're killing more pedestrians and cyclists--people who are traveling in lower-impact ways.

Careful out there, folks.

Researchers Discover Another 143 Trippy, 2,000-Year-Old Geoglyph Earth Drawings in Peru

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Geoglyphs are the rocky cousins of crop circles. Ancient civilizations drew large pictures--some of them a half-mile wide--on the ground by stacking rocks, or removing them to expose lighter-colored soil beneath, in order to create lines.

The best-known geoglyphs in the world are probably those at Nazca, Peru. Hundreds have been discovered to date, and the number recently received a boost. Archaeologists from Japan's Yamagata University, who have been studying Nazca since 2004, have just announced that they've discovered 143 previously unseen geoglyphs--all thought to be about 2,000 years old--through a combination of fieldwork and the analysis of 3D geographic data.

Below are the images, both unprocessed and processed. As these new finds have not yet been named, I'll offer my suggestions for what each should be called:

Picasso Crab With Lance

Unprocessed

Processed

Enthusiastic Dog-Faced Court Jester With Pac-Man Ghost Trapped in Stomach

Unprocessed

Processed

Some Kind of Mirror-Image Bird or Fish, Maybe Drawn by Two Separate Teams Who Both Thought They Were Supposed to Draw the Top Half and Never Double-Checked

Unprocessed

Processed

Cannot Decide if This is a Trippy Two-Headed Googly-Eyed Snake Eating Two Humans, or a One-Headed Googly-Eyed Snake Eating One Human While Pooping Another Human Out

Unprocessed

Processed

Interestingly enough, the research team would have only discovered 142 new geoglyphs, if they hadn't had some help from IBM's Watson Machine Learning AI. The AI pitched in to analyze the data and found this image:

Three-Eared, One-Armed TiVo Man With Long Remote Control


If you'd like to read the technical details of how the work was performed, Yamagata U.'s press release is here.

An Extreme 1970s Mobile Home Resto-Mod

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GMC might be known as the pickup truck king now, but back in the '70s they had their name on another road monster: The GMC Motorhome, which was the only turnkey mobile home built by a major auto manufacturer. It had a chassis kitted out with six wheels:

If you're a fan of the Bill Murray movie Stripes, you've seen the Motorhome before, though in a modified "EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle" trim dreamt up by the production designers:


Arizona-based motoring enthusiast Robert Nuccio got his hands on a Motorhome, and while he's not going full EM-50, he is heavily modifying it. All-new chassis, adjustable-height air suspension, winches both front and rear, a third winch just to lower the spare tire (it weighs 500 pounds!), two on-board welding rigs to enable repairs in the field. That latter bit is probably because Nuccio "is planning a massive road trip across Canada and the U.S. before possibly shipping it overseas," according to Motor1.com.

The interior is not yet complete…

…but you'll see evidence of a peculiar fetish installed in the cockpit:


Yep, those are all gauges. Nuccio inexplicably had over 130 of them installed, each one custom-built by instrumentation manufacturer Stewart Warner, a process that took two years. If that sounds a long time, consider that Nuccio's been having the vehicle worked on for 12. Now that's dedication.


Watch John Maeda Speak on the Merit of Taking Design Risks at the 2019 Core77 Conference

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Did you miss out on the festivities at this years Core77 Conference, "The Third Wave"? Don't sweat it, as we are rolling out many of our presenters' presentations over the next few weeks.

In this video, designer, technologist, and current Chief Experience Officer at Publicis Sapient John Maeda talks about public failure as a form of useful user research, the beauty of designers who take great risk in order to enact chance, and more:

Watch more from the 2019 Core77 Conference:

What is Third Wave Design? | Allan Chochinov, Core77 Partner

Check Out This Cool Auto-Fitting Emergency Oxygen Mask Provided to Commercial Pilots

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Last year, after seeing this photo of airplane passengers in a depressurized cabin incorrectly wearing their drop-down oxygen masks...

...we debated whether design was to blame, or not.

In any case, pilots, unsurprisingly, do not get the rinky-dink Dixie-cup masks that the passengers do. Fine by me if the pilot's mask is way more expensive--I want the guy or gal flying the plane to be able to get it on quickly and easily. Check out this fancy mask worn by Corporate Eagle pilots:

Note that the pilot can get it on one-handed, and the "Alien face-hugger" feature is pretty darn cool.

Design Job: Start Your Career as a Design Assistant at Apparatus in New York, NY

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The successful Design Assistant will support the Design Studio Director and the Director of Product Development with administrative work, research and studio organization. This individual is self-motivated, has experience working successfully in a collaborative environment, and can pivot between projects easily – as well as contribute to an ever-changing list of studio priorities.

View the full design job here

What if Our Clothes Were Alive? One Designer's Biotextiles Help Remove Harmful Toxins from the Air

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Biogarmentry was a Student Notable in the Personal Accessory category of the 2019 Core77 Design Awards.

"Fashion consumption has become a passive act," says Roya Aghighi. The numbers prove it so: the fast fashion industry is responsible for producing 20% of global wastewater; 63% of its clothes are made from petrochemicals; and its industry alone emits 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent per year [source]. Yet, we still wear, consume, and otherwise support these industries.

Aghighi and her collaborators are introducing a new concept – Biogarmentry. It presents a shift from traditional models of "buy, use, and dispose" to "buy, care, and compost."

A biotextile that lives through photosynthesis, Biogarmentry was developed in partnership with scientists and material engineers at The University of British Columbia (UBC). It is a living, breathing material that uses cellular respiration to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. 100% natural and fully compostable, it is symbiotically dependent on its wearer.

Once Aghighi and the teams at UBC began working together, the design process kicked off by setting up experiments to examine the survival of photosynthetic living cells on different kinds of natural fibers; they then spun a mixture of cultures and fiber, resulting in the first living and photosynthetic non-woven textile.

But it's not just about the textile, or combatting fast fashion. Biogarmentry "works on implementing a deeper, more holistic idea of change," Aghighi says. "It's focusing on a transformation of our values, goals and collective behaviors around our consumption-oriented habits, emphasizing an ecological system capable of lowering waste and carbon emissions."

The product ultimately reconfigures fashion consumption as an active act, fundamentally challenging our current relationship to our clothes by bringing agency back to textiles. This reconnection to worn objects has implications in environmental, social, cultural and industrial realms – and on a global scale. And it sets the tone for re-calibrated, more ecological relationships to other consumable, disposable objects we use and with which we surround ourselves.

Caring is the new future of consumption – and with biogarmentry, living, breathing and wearable is the new future of fashion. Or, at least worth trying on.

Read more about the living and photosynthetic Biogarmentry textile project on our Core77 Design Awards site of 2019 honorees



Reagan Ray's Visual Database of Vintage Logos

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In his spare time, Texas-based web designer Reagan Ray maintains a blog with an extremely thorough collection of logos, primarily vintage. It's the kind of thing that would take you hours and days if you tried to put it together on your own. Thankfully Ray has put the time in himself and gathered it all for your perusal, for those of you doing visual research. Here are some examples, and you can click the links to see the full galleries:

Video Game Console Logos

Airline Logos

'80s Action Figure Logos


Record Label Logos

American Automobile Logos

VHS Distributor Logos

Also be sure to check out Ray's own design work here.

"Trump Administration's Effort" to Allow Downloadable Plans for 3D-Printed Guns Blocked by Federal Judge

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There's so much news of impeachment hearings out there, it was easy to miss this piece of State-Department-related news that has to do with digital fabrication. Specifically, 3D-printed guns. The story's a bit convoluted here, so stick with me:

Sequence of Events

- In 2013 Cody Wilson, a crypto-anarchist and staunch proponent of 3D-printed guns, posts plans for them online.

- That same year the State Department, then under the Obama administration, sends him a takedown notice. Wilson complies.

- In 2015 Wilson's company, Defense Distributed, sues the State Department, seeking to allow the plans back online.

- In January of 2018, the Supreme Court rejects Wilson's appeal.

- In June of 2018, the State Department under the Trump administration inexplicably reverses its earlier decision and settles the case; they pay $39,851 to Defense Distributed, and allow the plans to go back online.

- Eight states and the District of Columbia protest, and a federal judge grants their request for a temporary restraining order blocking the settlement. The plans remain offline.

Sordid Sidebar:
- In August of 2018, Wilson, then 30 years of age, allegedly sexually assaults a minor in Texas; accounts indicate he hired an underaged prostitute.
- In September of 2018, upon learning that the police have been contacted, Wilson flees to Taiwan. He signs a lease on an apartment in Taipei.
- Wilson is arrested by U.S. authorities, with Taiwanese cooperation, in late September and brought back to the United States. After being charged with sexual assault, he resigns from Defense Distributed.
- In September of this year, Wilson gets a plea deal at trial and avoids jail time. He's sentenced to community service, seven years probation and $6,040 in fines and compensation.

Finally, the current news: As Reuters reported last week, "A federal judge on Tuesday struck down the Trump administration's effort to allow blueprints for making guns from 3-D printers to be posted online."

[U.S. District Judge Robert] Lasnik cited the State Department's prior view that publishing such instructions could threaten U.S. foreign policy, national security and even world peace by enabling criminals, including terrorists outside the United States, to obtain the firearms.
"Against these findings, the federal defendants offer nothing" to support the reversal, the Seattle-based judge wrote. "Because the agency action was arbitrary and capricious, it is unlawful and must be set aside."
"It is baffling that the Trump administration continued to work so hard to allow domestic abusers, felons and terrorists access to untraceable, undetectable 3D-printed guns," Washington state's attorney general, Bob Ferguson, said in a statement.

In a nutshell, it looks like freely-available-online 3D-printed gun plans are on hold. Again. For now.

___________________________________________

Sources:

- Reuters

- Slate

- Wired

- Taiwan News

- Buzzfeed

- The Verge

A Process For Working With Nature (Not Against It)

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At one time in design history, not so long ago (though it feels like forever ago), the designer would rely on the environment around them to provide the material of their creation. They might wade into the tide, walk into the forest, scale the mountain, go into whatever space was accessible to collect that which they needed and then return home to create. Now the origin of our materials is all but invisible to the designer, due in large part to some thermodynamically-ignorant ideas about global supply chains made in the past few of centuries. The logical conclusion of which has been planetary, ecological collapse. While it may be difficult to consider a future that is any different, it is an absolute necessity that designers find alternatives to those increasingly destructive industrial modes.

To find new modes of production Karlijn Sibbel has taken a look around, to see what local material can be used for design. In the project Industry by Nature, Sibbel has sought out fabrication techniques that rely upon local organisms (algae), minerals (salt), and climate. The project is an effort to create methods and technologies for industrial design, that may enable designers to more practically and ecologically source local material. Industry by Nature asks, what does industrial design look like without relying on global supply chains for material? The project in its pursuit of creating locally-sourced fabrication methods, works to deconstruct contemporary industrial design practices that fail to recognize ecology.

Industry by Nature is deconstruction through construction. In the project, "SEAt", Sibbel was able to create a stool made almost entirely of salt. Knitting the form of the stool from cotton, it was then soaked in a concentrated salt solution. In the solution, sea salt crystals build up on the cotton form, creating a strong, rigid structure. Sibbel has for several projects experimented with sea salt as a rigid material, as it is plentiful especially in coastal regions. In another experiment with salt, Sibbel was able to develop a formulation of time and temperature that yielded salt crystals building up to form spherical structures.

Additionally, Sibbel has sought fabrication techniques using our increasingly-frequent, photosynthetic collaborators: algae. Algae, which are plentiful almost everywhere, vary widely in their form and make-up. Currently, red algae, and the byproduct Agar, are among the most popular for material usage but the more work that is done to understand these algae, the more likely designers will be able to utilize other forms of the organism. In this effort, Sibbel collaborated with engineers from AlgaePARC and Wageningen University to design a rotating molding process. With this molding tool designers can shape algae growth so that it may be used as a sustainable biomaterial.

I'd wager that most designers would prefer to use locally-sourced, and more ecologically sound materials like algae, were it more accessible. It is irrational to think that any designer can take a walk around the neighborhood and find the material they need to fabricate a design. It is this inability to see where the material source of our designs has created an endless list of ecological issues. Yet increasingly, there are arising material suppliers that are working to help designers circumvent the larger industrial supply chains and are offering more sustainable material. The key to fostering those suppliers, and future economies based on ecological practices, is for designers to find more ways to work with these materials. To find ways of utilizing our local environments as Industry by Nature has.





Design Job: Help Shape a Growing and Unique Design Program Exploring the Future of Human-centred Design

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Glasgow School of Art has an exciting opportunity to shape a growing and unique Masters programme exploring the future of human-centred design. At a time when the role of design and designers is evolving in response to key societal shifts, the MDes in Design Innovation and Environmental Design recognises the need for design practitioners to find new ways to work within teams whose role is to examine and address the future needs of citizens. The emphasis upon collaborative working and real-world engagement is examined through projects that confront key social, political and economic issues, often working with partners from within industry or the public sector. The Environmental Design specialism examines space, place, and community, reimagining the potential and possibilities they offer to the relationship between people and place. The successful candidate will be able to contribute to contemporary debates around environment, ecology and related practices and critical positions.

View the full design job here

How Can You Use Data to Design Better Products?

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Did you miss out on the festivities at this years Core77 Conference, "The Third Wave"? Don't sweat it, as we are rolling out many of our presenters' presentations over the next few weeks.

In this panel at the 2019 conference, moderator Joe Meersman of Resideo along with Marijke Jorritsma of Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Dean Malmgren of IDEO discuss how data informs each of their practices and some ways designers can directly use data to improve their design processes:

Watch more from the 2019 Core77 Conference:

What is Third Wave Design? | Allan Chochinov, Core77 Partner

John Maeda on the Merit of Taking Design Risks


Bloomberg is a Billionaire Because He Backed Good Design

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Pop quiz: Who are some famous American billionaires you can think of? My guess is you'd rattle off Buffett, Trump, Musk, Gates, Bezos, Bloomberg.

How'd they make their money?

Bill Gates: Microsoft
Jeff Bezos: Amazon
Elon Musk: Numerous web ventures including PayPal
Donald Trump: Real estate
Warren Buffett: Finance
Michael Bloomberg: Finance

Actually, one of them built a massive fortune by backing good design. That's Michael Bloomberg, and this chapter of his story begins with him being in the wrong place at the right time.

From Working in His Underwear to Getting Fired

With an MBA from Harvard, in 1966 Bloomberg began working at Wall Street investment bank Salomon Brothers. And he started out at the very bottom; while he might have showed up in a suit and tie, the actual work required him to take most of his clothes off.

"We slaved in our underwear, in an un-air-conditioned bank vault, with an occasional six pack of beer to make it more bearable," he wrote in Bloomberg on Bloomberg. "Every afternoon, we counted out billions of dollars of actual bond and stock certificates to be messengered to banks as collateral for overnight loans. By the 1980s such practices would be as quaint as the horse-drawn carriage."

He worked his way up to partner by 1972. In the following years he became a bona fide Wall Street star, "known for coolly risking enormous sums in trades that nearly always proved profitable," according to Encyclopedia.com's citations of articles in Newsweek, New York, and Vanity Fair.

However, due to internal politics, by 1979 he was shunted into an undesirable and unsexy department, in the then-burgeoning field of information technology. While he was "promoted" to Director of Computer Operations, this was a shitty assignment, and a de-facto demotion.

Bloomberg played the hand he was dealt. With an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering, Bloomberg knew how to problem-solve, and began identifying problems in the company's computer system that needed fixing.

In 1981, amidst a merger, he was one of a half-dozen people forced out of the company. Finance is a brutal world; the man who had originally hired Bloomberg simply told him "Time for you to leave."

Fixing User-Unfriendly Design

Finance is brutal--but lucrative. Bloomberg had a $10 million golden parachute. He took $4 million of that and plowed it into a start-up, harnessing what he'd learned in the previous years: That computers could be used to rapidly bring relevant information to traders, but that the existing systems were difficult to use and generally sucked.

Working out of a 10x10 rented office, Bloomberg hired four people to help him design and build a computer terminal that would deliver information about the Treasury bond market, and it would be easy to use. (Note that this was a couple of years before Apple came out with the Macintosh.)

Bloomberg's MarketMaster terminal was born:

In 1982 Merrill Lynch became the first customer, purchasing 22 of them. They also invested $30 million in Bloomberg's new company, Innovative Market Solutions.

In '86 the company name was changed to Bloomberg L.P. In '87 they'd sold 5,000 machines and launched a trading systems platform.

From Rich to Super-Rich

By 1989 Bloomberg's company was worth $2 billion, and he bought Merrill Lynch's 1/3rd share back.

When Bloomberg ran for New York City mayor in 2001, his fortune was estimated at $4 billion. Today, as Intelligencerreports,"According to Forbes magazine estimates, he's the eighth-richest person in America with a net worth of $53.4 billion — making him 17 times wealthier than President Trump. And unlike Trump, he's a self-made billionaire."

How did his wealth increase so rapidly? "A large majority of Bloomberg LP's $10 billion in annual revenue comes from Bloomberg Terminal subscriptions." The Bloomberg Terminal, as it's now called, has an estimated 325,000 subscribers (you now rent them for two years at a time, rather than buying) each paying around $20,000 a year.

Computers for Virgins

What was so innovative about Bloomberg's original design, and how did it manage to endure from 1981 to a still-dominant position today? First off, Bloomberg's approach was what he himself called "Computers for virgins" in his 1997 autobiography. It was meant to be used by people who had zero computer experience.

Simple design touches, like replacing the standard "ESC" key with a key labeled "CANCEL" and coloring the button red, clearly communicated to users what it was meant to do. The standard "ENTER" button was changed to "GO," colored green, and placed on the extreme opposite corner of the keyboard, reinforcing that these were completely opposite operations. Yellow buttons on the right brought you to different markets. A unique "MENU" button brought you back to the last menu you accessed. And if you wanted to send a message, you hit a button labeled "MESSAGE."

Bloomberg's first "Chiclet" keyboard.

Those design touches might not seem like a big deal now, but in 1982 this was a holy-shit level of user-friendliness, compared to what was out there at the time.

In 1986 they came out with a laptop version. This was as crazy and hi-tech appearing as IBM's first laptop, which came out the same year:

1986

In 1989, the design took a hard left. A trackball was added for speed, and the keys were spread out and re-arranged, as if to prevent accidental button-pushes. Functionality may have improved, but aesthetic considerations were nil.

1989

By 1992 Bloomberg spotted the need to add multimedia communication. Headphone, telephone and microphone jacks were added, as was a built-in speaker.

1992

Bloomberg himself using the Terminal, with flatscreens still a few years away

In 1994, with basic computer literacy now widespread, the designers returned to a more conventional-looking design, while still retaining their color-coding and dedicated-function buttons. The speakers were there--now stereo--as were the mic and headphones jacks from the previous model, but the trackball was ditched.


1994

In 1995 they came out with a then-hi-tech wireless model, which operated via infrared. For this design the speakers had to be sacrificed, but the trackball returned.

1995

The 1996 design got rid of the trackball for good, kept the jacks and speakers, and added more trader-specific function keys. Fancy dual flatscreens were added.


1996

In the mid-2000s the design was stepped up: Antenna Design was hired for the revamp. A biometric fingerprint sensor was added to the keyboard, and the dual screens could perform some fancy tricks.

Antenna Design, mid-2000s

By 2008, technology had improved to the point that the keyboard's footprint could be greatly reduced, even as it was made wireless. The fingerprint sensor was moved to a more sensible location at the bottom.

2008

And finally, today's keyboard has perhaps the most rational design of all of them. And the fingerprint sensor has been reduced to a tiny notch, at top right, that you swipe your finger down on.

Today

Here's a look at what the design team went through to get today's keyboard just right:

It's Not Just a Keyboard from Bloomberg LP on Vimeo.

Lastly I should point out, when I say that Bloomberg backed good design, I don't just mean the design of the keyboard. I mean the design of the entire user experience. We didn't get into any of the technical details of the overall system--how the reliability, information and security of the system is delivered--because that's not our beat. But the way that the entire package of the Bloomberg Terminal seamlessly delivers its results to users is why the machine has been able to fend off competitors and persists with high sales today, nearly 40 years after it first launched. As the Intelligencer article quoted one user,

"The goddamn thing works," says Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management and a frequent panelist on CNBC's Halftime Report. "It does what it's supposed to do. It's reliable. They're constantly adding new features."
Brown agreed that it would be possible for many Terminal users to cobble together web services providing the information they truly need for much less than Bloomberg's subscription fee. But he said this approach is less user friendly and less reliable and that users remain willing to pay a high price for the Bloomberg Terminal because of the cost savings they can generate from using it.
For example, he said the Terminal has made it easier for bond investors to trade directly with each other instead of paying fees to brokers. Why scrimp on your Bloomberg subscription when the functionality it offers you may be saving you huge amounts in commissions?

Bloomberg found a lucrative niche where design was lacking, and where he knew plenty of people would be willing to pay handsomely for good design, because it would help them make more money. Like Apple, he controlled both the hardware and the software to tailor the user experience. But unlike Apple, Bloomberg's designers actually listen to their customers, as we saw in the video above, and they design their improvements accordingly.

Their efforts make an incredibly complicated system as easy to use as possible. I wish Bloomberg L.P. could design my health insurance provider's systems.

This Furniture Company Says Canadian Design Isn't a Look—It's a Value System

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Laugh all you want about what you think the pillars of Canadian design might be, as EQ3 VP of Product Development Enri Tielmann & Senior Director of Brand Development Nils Vik joked in a recent interview: "it's difficult for most to codify what Canadian Design is beyond stereotypical aesthetic tropes and imagery—plaid, moose, antlers, maple syrup." EQ3, a Canadian furniture retailer founded in 2001 that is also producing its own furniture collections, is here to report that Canadian design philosophies could help light the way for other furniture manufacturers around the world.

Photo: Mathieu Fortin / Wedge

With a recent branding campaign launched alongside the opening of a New York City flagship in early November, EQ3 wants to highlight the characteristics of Canadian design they think stand as exemplars in the furniture industry overall. "When we refer to [ourselves as] being 'Canadian by Design,' we are not referencing a specific aesthetic, but rather the values that define Canadian culture: Progressive, Inclusive, Pragmatic, Human." In many ways, their company reinforces this philosophy with business strategies that prioritizes quality overall, whether it has to do with furniture's material and build grade or the quality of life of their factory workers.

As a part of their new branding campaign, EQ3 exhibits what being a modern day furniture company with human-centered values means.

The Traits of a Holistic Design Business

When it comes to building out an inclusive, intentional and progressive value system in a furniture company, what does that look like and how can design itself be at the forefront of change? For EQ3, this begins at the source. A vertically integrated company, they produce their upholstery locally in Winnipeg, Canada, and own and operate a manufacturing plant in Indonesia where most of their case goods are produced.

Photo: Mathieu Fortin / Wedge

Because the company wants to offer their products at reasonable prices that lie comfortably in between ultra-cheap IKEA furniture and a super high-end furniture company, outsourcing becomes necessary as Vik and Tielmann explained: "The biggest challenge in manufacturing products locally is that they become price prohibitive. However, more efficient manufacturing processes can offset higher labor costs and result in more competitive products." Having control over their own international factory guarantees these goals can be achieved, all the while allowing the company to promise good working conditions. If they partner with other companies on a project, EQ3 also conducts factory audits in order to ensure humane working conditions and key competencies.

How to Build a More Sustainable Manufacturing System

There's also, of course, the issue of waste. [The furniture industry is most guilty of] disposable products," state Tielmann and Vik. "Trend and seasonality suggest that certain products will become aesthetically obsolete after a short period of time, and consequently, there isn't an incentive to produce high quality products." So EQ3 works to create products that are "inherently non-disposable, not in quality, function, or design," as Tielmann puts it, so as to provide users with an incredibly long-lasting piece.

Photo: Mathieu Fortin / Wedge

Design strategy can be a huge factor in affecting how sustainable a company's manufacturing process can be. "Designing with constraints in mind allows the creation of great values, while reducing waste, whether domestically or overseas," Tielmann describes. Again, while overseas manufacturing is essential to a lower price point, EQ3 aims to offset this environmental toll through sustainability by design using a number of techniques, like careful material sourcing, optimizing fabric cutting yields and flat packed shipping.

Tielmann hopes the company's emphasis on quality of material and build overall can account for a reduction of furniture waste as a result of consumers: "If something is designed and manufactured well, products can last for many years. I can pass on my EQ3 Ban Coffee Table to my daughter, and one day she can pass it on to her children. I love the idea that the table will last longer than it takes for an oak tree to grow."

EQ3's Future Sustainability Goals

Leading an environmentally forward business requires constant, deep analysis of why strategic business decisions are made, whether big or small. The EQ3 team states that their new retail presence in New York has as much to do with its ability to ensure customer satisfaction and therefore reduced waste as it does brand recognition, as Vik explained: "Return rates on e-commerce platforms are much higher than in traditional retail environments, given the fact that customers are able to physically interact with their purchases beforehand. This means less returned products ending up in landfills."

EQ3's brand new New York retail space. (Photo: Hamish Smyth)

Another one of their sustainability goals has to do with something consumers might not think much of when it comes to ordering furniture: the styrofoam inside your package. EQ3 is hoping in the future to completely eliminate the material from their product packaging. "There is much more work to be done and we don't pretend to be perfect," Tielmann admits, "[but] it is encouraging to see that consumers appreciate sustainable initiatives and that innovative materials continue to be developed, such as honeycomb cardboard for safe packaging."

Perhaps what EQ3 is doing that's most important is calling attention to the ways in which the furniture industry should be held accountable for its carbon footprint and treatment of workers around the world. Vik and Tielmann say, "we need to improve on how we talk about these initiatives as they become part of the value proposition of a product. It ideally could contribute to other companies looking at us as a positive example."



Currently Crowdfunding: A Game That Makes STEM Education Screen-Free, a Bike Tracking Device, and More 

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Modular containers keep your lunch organized inside this carrying pack. When you're ready to eat, the pack unfolds into a convenient mat that will keep your desk protected from spills or make impromptu picnics a whole lot easier.

Even with the best locks and chains, your bike is always susceptible to theft. This smart tracking device can be subtly installed under the seat (one charge will last three months) where it will automatically react if it's moved, tampered with, or stolen. As the owner, you'll be immediately notified with up-to-date tracking information that can be passed on to local police.

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