In many cases, the millennial generation has been forced to grow up way too fast, thanks to the ever-evolving social media phenomenon. What used to be back and forth AIM messages at 2AM while your parents were sleeping has quickly morphed into full-fledged profiles aiming to show the world detailed
Modernist Studio focuses on strategy and design work for big brands. In working with these companies, we've seen a theme around "owning the consumer." Each company is fighting to become front and center in people's lives, with a particular focus on the home. Big companies speak about locking in customers
I'm a long time Industrial Designer, the current Graduate Director of the MID Graduate program in RISD's Industrial Design department, and a Faculty in Residence at the Autodesk Build Space in Boston. As a resident, I proposed to expand on Autodesk's work of creating collaborative cloud-based software environments for creating,
You do what? "So, you design factory machines? Is that what you mean?" Many of us have switched from calling ourselves "industrial designers" to saying that we are "product designers." But the difficulty grows if your design work does not fall squarely inside the commercial realm—the experimental stuff, the artsy stuff, or not-for-profit stuff.
"I don't think you can design anything just by absorbing information and then hoping to synthesise it into a solution. What you need to know about the problem only becomes apparent as you're trying to solve it." Richard MacCormac. The argument here is a simple one, but one which I believe has been swept under the design practice rug for quite some time.
Recently there has been lots of talk about how the rise of automation is changing the workplace—as if a robotic takeover was just around the corner. I don't see automatons massing at the gates, but we need to acknowledge that there's some data fueling this anxiety. For example,
Designers must draw. We pretty much all agree on that one. Regardless of whether we're designing buildings, products, clothes or even web pages, a good number of us are judged—and judge each other—on our ability to snag a sheet of paper from the printer and quickly draft something beautiful and compelling.
Recently throughout the business press, there have been countless articles about CCOs and CDOs and their value. Large companies like Coca Cola, Pepsi, 3M, Electrolux, and Hyundai have added these positions over the last few years. Most people behave like this is a remarkable new development. It has been the
I would estimate that I am doing 85-90% of my work with hand tools these days. Because of thist, I am constantly looking for better lighting so I can truly see my work. Lately, I haven't even been turning on my overhead fluorescent lights, instead favoring the incandescent work light
I don't care how exciting your design job is—at some point you have to engage in repetitive, mundane tasks. Whether it's naming Photoshop layers, cutting a crapload of biscuit joints or tediously executing some CAD task that you can't automate—how do you deal with it? Me, I've found a strange
One question we get from new clients while drafting industrial design proposals is how many concepts they'll be reviewing in the early phases of a project. Every client and every project challenge is different, but more often than not we agree on an expectation of between four and six concepts
In February 2013 at Long Beach, I stood on a stage in front of 1500 people, all of whom had paid a lot of money to attend the week-long TED event. Trying to appear casual and confident but nervous as hell inside, I began my talk with the question, "Why
Who'd have thought that the once strange and marginalized form of design practice–discursive design–would be promoted and even employed by national governments? What a difference a few decades can make.
As the idea of autonomous cars becomes more widely accepted, there's a challenge that tomorrow's automotive designers will need to tackle: how to design desirability into the autonomous car? Industry consensus is that the move to autonomous cars is a gradual but inevitable process. We already expect increasingly more
I'm an architect, and for many reasons—quality, availability, efficiency, sustainability and aesthetics—I think residential architecture should be produced more like the industrial design typically found on Core77. Most important, if houses were designed, manufactured and distributed more like products, good design would be far more affordable and many more people
Industrial designers are equipped with skills like ergonomics, technology, sustainability, rendering, systems-thinking and aesthetics. All are useful skills to begin solving for some of today's problems. These skills have been instrumental since the beginning of the industrial era. We tend to keep this kind of functionality at the center of
What are the odds a new product will still be around in two years' time? If you ask the Product Design & Marketing Association, they're not good: between 25 and 45 percent of consumer goods in its survey eventually fail in the market. The U.S. Department of Commerce is even
"I don't think you can design anything just by absorbing information and then hoping to synthesise it into a solution. What you need to know about the problem only becomes apparent as you're trying to solve it." Richard MacCormac The argument here is a simple one, but one which I
The Smart City is a huge, vague and ubiquitous idea. The phrase—so insistent yet so slippery—suggests a way we can understand how cities work and how we might get them to work better.
By Geoff Ledford, Industrial Designer at Soulcake Creative/INDUS OutdoorsThe modern designer/manufacturer/consumer loop isn't sustainable. That's well-covered territory and the subject of books, lectures and articles by people that are smarter and much more qualified to speak on the subject than me. But as a product designer going into the holiday...
For many years, together with a number of design educators, I have been discussing how design can address the complex socio-technological systems that characterize our world. The issues are not new: many people and disciplines have grappled with them for some time. But how can design play a role? Do...
A "product" today is rarely just physical, but consumers' expectations for meaningful product experiences are greater than ever. The challenge for designers is to bring empathy and sensitivity to their work, regardless of the tools and technologies at their disposal.By Sohrab Vossoughi, President & Founder, ZibaLast month marked Ziba's 30th...
Chiaki Arai, Kadare Cultural Center, 2012 // Photo: Taisuke Ogawa, courtesy of Chiaki Arai OfficeBy Marc Hohmann, Design Partner, Lippincott"I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. Everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again... The future is...
Our initial report may have echoed Airbnb's hyperbolic enthusiasm about their new identity, and despite criticism that has metastasized in relevant corners of the web—an equal and opposite reaction, if you will—here is a more nuanced take on Airbnb's new logo, Bélo.Let's start with an experiment: Grab a piece of...
A few months ago, our columnist Fosta sent me the text of his bi-monthly column, in which he proposed a design philosophy that he dubbed "The Future Mundane," which was among the more though-provoking pieces in recent memory. When it came time to reflect on the Year in Review, I...
Like a lot of designers, I have struggled with the term industrial design over the years. The term seems a little vague. Sometimes people ask us if we design factories. A look at conversations over in the Core77 discussions forums shows I'm not alone. Check out this 80 reply thread...
Suffice it to say that the Mac Pro was easily the best thing Apple did this year.Core77 2013 Year in Review: Top Ten Posts · Furniture, Pt. 1 · Furniture, Pt. 2Digital Fabrication, Pt. 1 · Digital Fabrication, Pt. 2 · Digital Fabrication, Pt. 3 · Digital Fabrication, Pt. 4Insights...
Stills from Maker, a forthcoming documentary about the Maker MovementCore77 2013 Year in Review: Top Ten Posts · Furniture, Pt. 1 · Furniture, Pt. 2Digital Fabrication, Pt. 1 · Digital Fabrication, Pt. 2 · Digital Fabrication, Pt. 3 · Digital Fabrication, Pt. 4Insights from the Core77 Questionnaire · Maker Culture:...
By Martyn Perks As contrary as it sounds, in 2014 designers should be more ambitious and less worried about being socially responsible. That way, we will all get to benefit more from their efforts.Take the reaction to how India launched its probe to Mars in November. No sooner had the...
I was a bit surprised to discover, at some point between my second and third excursions to the neighborhood of Dashilar, that the press kit for Beijing Design Week included a few photos documenting not the myriad pop-up exhibitions or experimental renovation projects on view but rather glimpses of everyday...
Everything in the built world has been designed and crafted by someone. This is not news to most of us, but I'm amazed that even as engineering and design have taken more visible roles in shaping how we experience the world, there are still so many who see themselves as...
When analytic thought, the knife, is applied to experience, something is always killed in the process. That is fairly well understood, at least in the arts... Something is always killed. But what is less noticed in the arts—something is always created too.-Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the art of Motorcycle...
Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci via Wikimedia CommonsUtopia or Oblivion? Buckminster Fuller framed this question in his 1993 book of the same name, warning that mankind's prospects would go decisively one way, or the other. Twenty years on, it is clear that nobody could have answered his question with any...
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