Here's what we looked at this week:A man was ordered by the city to build a visual screen to conceal his boat. He complied. This incredible mobile bridge, designed and built in Switzerland, diverts traffic overhead during road repairs.This TriqBriq production system turns oth … | Continue reading
Canfield Scientific, a manufacturer of imaging systems for science and healthcare applications, wanted to refresh their Vectra H1 handheld system. They contacted industrial design and engineering consultancy HSD, a/k/a/ HS Design. "HSD worked to not only aid in improving lighting … | Continue reading
Monocab is a new form of transportation that makes use of existing infrastructure. Conceived of by German design engineer Thorsten Försterling, the idea is that rural areas of Europe, which often lack public transportation options, could have their disused railway lines populated … | Continue reading
Years ago on a trip to Death Valley, I slept in a tiny one-man tent. The host had provided a cot inside to elevate the sleeping bag. Although the space was coffin-like, sleeping on the cot was far more comfortable than on the cold ground.Jake Lah, a veteran South Korean tent desi … | Continue reading
At Johns Hopkins University, a Mechanical Engineering class was given a difficult assignment: To silence an off-the-shelf leaf blower, without reducing its efficacy.Apparently the assignment was given with no expectation that it could actually be accomplished; as the school's Hub … | Continue reading
This Wind bench, by Belgian designer Peter Donders, combines digital fabrication with hand craftsmanship.Made of birch plywood, the pieces were produced in slices on a CNC mill. "It is composed of 1265 sections over 85 layers which were combined into 220 numbered pieces before be … | Continue reading
What can you do with tiny offcuts of wood?For Brooklyn-based furniture maker Richard Haining, the scraps of others are the raw materials for his STACKED series of vessels."Richard finds inspiration in the abundance or wood being discarded throughout NYC, from woodshop offcuts to … | Continue reading
I've seen lots of craftspersons who can join wood to wood. But I haven't seen many who can join wood to stone, with this kind of precision: That's the Wabi-Sabi bed, by furniture designer Ethan Stebbins. The wood is White Ash, and the stone is granite, which Stebbins harvested fr … | Continue reading
I started out wanting to make fun of this thing, but realize that's my climate-controlled-workplace privilege. I'm lucky I don't work in torching conditions anymore; years ago I spent a summer working as a line cook, it was 130 degrees where I stood in front of the grill, and I'd … | Continue reading
Years ago The New Yorker had a reader contest, asking you to add one letter to a word, to make a new word that made sense. The amusing entry I remember was "giraffiti," meant to describe graffiti in improbably high locations. The term is now in the Urban Dictionary.Image: Steve G … | Continue reading
As infrastructure spread across America in the 20th century, we learned that bridges periodically need to be inspected. Having a look at the road surface was easy; just shut down traffic and let the inspector walk it. But inspecting the underside is more challenging, particularly … | Continue reading
A pickup truck isn't anything without tie-down gear, which all have their pain points. Ratchet straps are the go-to for hauling larger items, but they're overkill for smaller stuff, and tedious to wind up. Bungie cords can work well for smaller items, but there's a length/tension … | Continue reading
So OpenAI has unveiled GPT-4o, their latest flagship AI. The AI can not only speak—in a disturbingly lifelike way, complete with surprise, chuckles and the like—but can use your camera to deduce what's going on around you. It has to be seen/heard to be believed.OpenAI won't allow … | Continue reading
Overnight travel is freaking amazing. I've taken overnight trains and buses in the 'States, Europe and Asia and always loved it. To be unconscious during the boring parts of travel, then wake up at your destination, is the closest thing we have to teleportation.This Swift Pod con … | Continue reading
Brilliant design is when you can take a waste product and transform it into something badly needed.In 1989 Phil McCrory, an Alabama hairdresser, was shampooing a customer's head. The TV in the salon was on, and news footage of the Exxon Valdez oil spill was being broadcast. As Mc … | Continue reading
Hasbro's line of G.I. Joe action figures was a tremendous hit in the '80s. The largest toy they produced in the line-up was this USS Flagg aircraft carrier, which was the size of a coffee table:Image: Internal Confusion 9 The monstrous toy's original 1985 commercial:Last week som … | Continue reading
This Pivot Arc Lighter provides the reach of a wand lighter, but comes in a more portable form factor: It can be folded in half when not in use. It's made of die-cast zinc and finished with a brass coating. The juice comes from lithium-ion batteries, recharged via the USB-C port … | Continue reading
From an environmental perspective, responsibly managed wood is undoubtedly the best building material. It literally grows out of the ground, it stores carbon, and it can be endlessly regenerated.That being said, there's a lot of waste created in timber production. Not every tree … | Continue reading
Resurfacing a highway requires shutting down lanes, and this creates disruption. The Swiss don't like disruptions. Thus the Swiss Federal Roads Office (FEDRO) hired Marti Technik AG, a construction firm that specializes in cutting-edge technology and special equipment, to design … | Continue reading
Etienne Constable of Seaside, California is a boat owner. It's parked on a trailer in his driveway, in plain view. The city government informed Constable that this was illegal; the boat would need to be visually concealed behind a six-foot visual barrier.Constable complied and ha … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:Industrial Facility designed this Powerbox mobile charging system for Herman Miller. How architects could help custom fab shops: Let them sell products from projects.Fantastic Industrial Design student work: Charlie Humble-Thomas asks "How l … | Continue reading
These days an ID firm might be called on to design a system, rather than a product. Package Solutions is a company seeking to solve the problems of delivering packages to multi-resident buildings and student housing. They hired Formation Design Group to work out the solutions."Th … | Continue reading
I wear a face shield in the mornings. On a farm, when you're blasting out muck buckets with a hose, you only have to get liquid feces up your nose once before you seek solutions.The face shield I've got is the polycarbonate 3M kind that you'd wear if using a lathe. It's overkill, … | Continue reading
These MagPower Tables were designed by Carl Magnusson. The legs feature one USB-A and two USB-C ports.You may be wondering where the power comes from. In Magnusson's sketch, we can see where the power cord would be plugged into the back of the leg: However, there's also an optio … | Continue reading
In the 1950s, German manufacturer Hailo produced step trash cans.Nowadays trash cans (at least in Europe) are no longer standalone items in kitchens, but are hidden within cabinets. Keeping pace is Hailo's modern offering, the Libero. It's a super low-profile hands-free cabinet d … | Continue reading
This Help Universal Light is by German industrial designer Rupert Kopp. A sort of task lamp for everyday life, the graphic, playful shape is meant to encourage you to jury-rig it into places where you couldn't get an ordinary lamp.The dimmable LED puts out up to 1,900 lumens. The … | Continue reading
Remember the package-design-egg-drop challenge they make (or made) ID students do? Civil Engineering students at the Technical University of Munich face a similar challenge, except the egg is their professor.In order to pass TUM's Design & Construction 2 course, student teams eac … | Continue reading
As European cities increasingly ban cars and trucks, delivery by bicycle is growing in popularity. But cargo bikes can only carry so much. That's why Cityshuttle, an urban mobility company, is taking a page from the trucking industry's book. Cityshuttle's ePack is essentially a t … | Continue reading
Here's an unusual furniture niche: Powered behind-the-sofa consoles. Michigan-based builder Mitten State Woodworks specializes in them, offering depths as narrow as 3", and as wide as 11". The other dimensions are up to you and the size of your sofa. A built-in outlet provides tw … | Continue reading
"I struggled to work with my cats nearby," writes inventor Scott Salzman. "They interfered with my work, stepped on the keyboard, and interrupted business." Salzman then designed this Desk Nest Cat Bed: It's basically a monitor arm, a small pet bed, and a mating mount. It's also … | Continue reading
This striking ANC stool……was CNC-milled from an aluminum slab. Once the parts are folded, the diamond-shaped key is bolted into place, holding it all together. It was designed by Swiss design consultancy Panter & Tourron. The motivation behind the piece is somewhat paradoxical:"A … | Continue reading
If you watched the recent Shogun remake, you might have wondered why the samurai, fearsome warriors that they are, had such goofy haircuts.I'd asked a teacher about this when I was living in Japan. The two-part answer had to do with the helmets samurai wore in battle. 1. The top … | Continue reading
Working with cutting edge technologies to create innovative products, experiences and spaces is a dream job for many of today's designers. Ideally, these designed experiences deliver delight to the intended audience, with interactions that are as clear, understandable and enjoyab … | Continue reading
In 2000, architect Mario Botta was commissioned to design the Centre Dürrenmatt in Neuchâtel. Built around 20th Swiss century author/painter Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 1952 residence, the Centre is a showcase for his work, managed by the Swiss National Library.After two decades the C … | Continue reading
Based in Munich, Marcus Götschl is a Master Cabinetmaker who also holds a degree in Product Design. Götschl shows a little outside-the-box thinking with his New Gen bed:"The focus is on minimising resource consumption and using replaceable components, challenging the culture of d … | Continue reading
As someone who reveres timber framing, this is kind of painful to see. However, I suppose it's better that the pieces are seen and used as street furniture rather than discarded.These are public benches outside a train station in Otsu, the capital of Japan's Shiga Prefecture. "In … | Continue reading
This Slittino bench, made of Maple, is by Geneva-based designer Léa Debernardi. Debernardi sought to meld CNC fabrication with traditional craftsmanship:"CNC machine tools prove to be the most widespread digital tools in Swiss carpentry and cabinetmaking," she explains. "However, … | Continue reading
Sponsored and conducted with Advance Design Division of Honda R&D Co., Ltd., in partnership with Pratt Institute, La Fonte Co., Ltd. and Core 77, the Design Schools Workshop will take place for the first time as part of WANTED during ICFF at the Javits Center, May 19-21, with a w … | Continue reading
May the 4th is probably an exhausting day for Disney lawyers, as they hunt down unauthorized Star Wars celebratory products being sold. Apparel company BustedTees may have found a loophole with their Imperial Officer baseball caps:The row of red and blue tiles visually indicate, … | Continue reading
This incredibly ambitious and thoroughly-executed project is by Charlie Humble-Thomas, done while pursuing his Masters in the Design Products program at the RCA. Called Conditional Longevity, it asks the question: "How long should objects last?" Seeking the answer, Humble-Thomas … | Continue reading
It's not uncommon for architects to design not just a structure, but the fixtures that will populate it. The manufacture of these smaller pieces is outsourced to custom fabricators.One such fabricator is Totetsu, a Japanese ironworking company. "Many of the products created by ar … | Continue reading
The Powerbox is the latest addition to Herman Miller's OE1 Workspace Collection. Like the other pieces in the collection, it's been designed by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, a/k/a Industrial Facility; however it's not a piece of furniture, but a portable charging system meant to enabl … | Continue reading
To celebrate the launch of the newest Star Wars Original Series, The Acolyte, as well as the designers and makers who have worked to create distant worlds, creatures and—yes—the droids we all love, Autodesk and Disney invite you to join their ranks by entering a Droid design comp … | Continue reading
Here's what we looked at this week:A good example of improving an existing product's UX by listening to customers' pain points: Star-M's special Raceway Bit speeds installation times for electricians. Milwaukee's alternative designs for vacuum-based drill dust shrouds.Elements Ed … | Continue reading
"We are completely revolutionizing air conditioners," writes startup Transaera, "with advanced materials that remove moisture from the air before cooling it. Then we use the heat generated by the air conditioner – instead of wasting it – to dry the material for the next cycle. Th … | Continue reading
This is an interesting furniture form, designed for the masses, and always poorly executed. (I have a hard time admitting those two qualities are now permanently linked.) Aimed at the outdoor grilling crowd, it's a height-adjustable outdoor side table with a cooler in the bottom … | Continue reading
You've seen pit stop footage with crew members zipping tires on and off. But you may not have seen this thing being swapped out:That's a bottle filled with water, usually mixed with some combination of vitamins, minerals and/or glucose. Races can be long and grueling, and drivers … | Continue reading
SHFT is the handle of a South Korean product designer who produces objects in sheet metal. Their m.o. is to post shots of prototypes on Instagram to gauge feedback, then batch-produce the things people like. One such object is this stainless steel Fold B clipboard for sketching, … | Continue reading