By Rain Noe - Aug 22 New

3D Printing Ergonomic Knobs with a Resin Core

Hack your tools for greater efficiency

If you're making something for yourself and casting it in resin, you can probably live with the inevitable air bubbles that appear in the object. But if you're an industrial designer prototyping something a client's going to see, bubbles are a no-no. That's why professional prototypers like Eric Strebel use

By Emily Engle - Aug 22 New

Our Favorite Products from Today's HAY Kitchen Market Launch

Hold us back.

Earlier today, HAY design launched their exclusive Kitchen Market at the MoMA Design Store SoHo. We were overwhelmed and excited by the 250—yes, 250—piece collection designed by Mette Hay with items selected by Danish chef and restaurateur, Frederik Bille Brahe. The collection merges classic kitchen necessities with modern design, throwing

By Rain Noe - Aug 22 New

This Designer Built a Floating Studio Hidden Under a Bridge

"Refuge from the city within the city itself"

Yeah, so this is nuts: Valencia-based designer Fernando Abellanas wanted to "seek refuge from the city within the city itself," and picked the underside of a bridge—far above the ground—as a site for a studio. By welding up a steel frame with rollers resting on the bridge's crossbeams, he can

By Rain Noe - Aug 22 New

The Two Best Videos of the Eclipse and Where You Can Catch the Next One

One from space, one from Earth

The internet is awash in self-shot eclipse footage, most of it pretty sucky. If you missed the live event itself, leave it up to the pros--NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and NASA--to give you the best views. First off, here's what the eclipse looked like from space, time-lapsed into

By Fictiv Inc. - Aug 21

Learn by Example: How to Design Light Pipes

Light plays an important role in the design of many hardware products. Often, they are both decorative and functional. Indicator lights are the most minimal user interface: They tell you whether the device is turned on, low on battery, or "thinking" really hard. On modern electronics, the light's source is

By Rain Noe - Aug 21

Mastering the Pen Tool with "The Bezier Game"

Give it your bez shot

As someone who learned to use CAD before Illustrator, I've always hated the pen tool. My first CAD jockey jobs required perfect tangency and precision, not these touchy-feely "handles" that provided weird parabolic arcs. Maybe I'd have learned to use the tool better if "The Bezier Game" had existed

By Rain Noe - Aug 21

Game of Thrones Recap: "Beyond the Wall"

Soft hands, lazy management, ergonomic backpack improvements

SPOILERS!

By Rain Noe - Aug 21

Natasha Jen's "Design Thinking is Bullshit" Argument

The Pentagram partner decries Post-Its, hexagons and oversimplification

At this summer's 99U conference, Pentagram partner and designer Natasha Jen gave a presentation with an eye-catching title: "Design Thinking is Bullshit." This was actually the second time she'd given the talk--back in May Jen tweeted "Finally let it out of my system" after presenting it at HOWlive in Chicago--but

By David Frane - Aug 20

Klein HVAC 8-in-1 Hex Head Slide Driver

A multi-bit nut driver that could easily be configured for multiple trades.

Multi-bit drivers used to suck but have been greatly refined in recent years. Case in point—Klein's HVAC 8-in-1 Hex Head Slide Driver. To look at it you would think it's a nut driver, which for some reason has a knurled sleeve behind the head. But why? The sleeve is a

By Rain Noe - Aug 18

Just What is a Tiki Torch, Anyway?

Who invented it and who are the Tiki?

By now you've probably seen this image, which was created by Funny or Die: While there's nothing funny about what happened at Charlottesville, more than a few pointed out the levity within the act of white supremacists presumably purchasing their torches at a Party City retail outpost. Tiki Brand,

By Core Jr - Aug 18

A Soap Opera Filmed in IKEA, a Look at a Fascinating Motorcycle from the 1990s and Lots of Nostalgic Architecture 

A weekly selection of great links hand-picked by Core77 editors. Get 'em while they're hot.

The Core77 team spends time combing through the news so you don't have to. Here's a weekly roundup of our favorite finds from the World Wide Web:

By Core Jr - Aug 18

A Clever Piece of Graphic Design in Protest of the Current State of Affairs

Artist Mike Mitchell says "Spread it far and wide"

Artist Mike Mitchell actually created this back in May, but it's suddenly more relevant now that our President has waffled on whether to denounce neo-Nazis and white supremacists. "Here's a high res copy which I'm allowing for personal use (signs, shirts, buttons)," Mitchell writes. "Spread it far and wide."

By Rain Noe - Aug 18

What Are the Practical Differences Between Different Tire/Rim Sizes?

Noise, performance, comfort, safety and fun

I learned to drive on a five-speed Datsun 280ZX that had 195/70 R14 tires. Yes, 14-inch wheels sporting tires with high sidewalls. This was normal in the '80s, but nowadays the rage is to have beefier rims with low-profile tires, a trend that I suspect was advanced by car renderings. Every automotive renderer seems to draw rims that threaten to bottom out inside the wheel wells, with only the faintest sliver of black to indicate there's any rubber on them.

By Rain Noe - Aug 17

Interactive Map Shows You the Exact Opposite End of the Globe From You

The Antipodes Map shows you where you'd wind up if you dug straight down

This is one of my dogs, Betsy, right before she starts furiously digging. She does it every time I take her to the beach and I joke that she's trying to get back to Japan, where her breed, the Shiba Inu, originates from. But assuming Betsy tunneled straight down from

By Rain Noe - Aug 17

Yea or Nay? Instead of the Selfie, the "Bothie"

Nokia's hoping their new smartphone trick will attract new buyers

Now that the Nokia brand has been resurrected, we're starting to see licensee HMD Global Oy take creative strides to make them competitive again. First they relaunched the 3310, essentially a vintage cell phone design that's 17 years old. Now they've moving into smartphone territory with their Nokia 8, and

By Core Jr - Aug 17

Sponsored Post: 3M's Precision Standing Desk Gives You the Option Between Sitting and Standing in an Effortless Package

Quickly transform your existing desk into a sit-stand workstation to help boost productivity at work

As our work environments evolve from stagnant cubicles to spaces that demand adaptability for the sake of efficiency and creative thinking, the objects around us should do the same. A need for flexible workspaces has led to the normalization of products in the workplace like the standing desk. The productivity

By Rain Noe - Aug 17

Another Crazy Optical Illusion: There are 16 Circles in This Image

…and there's an interesting explanation for why you can't see them at first

This tricky visual is called "The Coffer Illusion." What do you see? There are in fact 16 circles sitting right there in plain sight. Keep staring and eventually you'll see them, resulting in an odd feeling of satisfaction and/or a splitting

By Steven Johnson - Aug 16

Steven M. Johnson's Bizarre Invention #169: Bomb Blast Benches

Take a load off

Steven M. Johnson's "Patent Depending" series of inventions range from social commentary to plain ol' bizarre, and they always give us a laugh. So we've contracted him to let us publish one every week.

By Rain Noe - Aug 16

The Cubiio: A Portable Laser Engraver!

Bring the tool to the work

This is so cool. Shop tools come in two varieties: Bring the work to the tool (i.e. table saw, bandsaw) or bring the tool to the work (circular saw, jigsaw). A laser engraver has always been in the first category, but now a Taiwan-based startup called Muherz has created one

By Joel Moskowitz - Aug 16

Tools & Craft #60: Do You Really Need an Adjustable Mouth on a Handplane?

Here's the case against

For the past couple of decades, the adjustable mouth has always been on the laundry list of features a plane should have. For example, in an article in Fine Woodworking #171 by Chris Gochnour on shoulder planes, one big complaint he had about the Clifton shoulder planes is that they