By Mikhail Mansion - Jun 12

Musical Instruments, Transformed

Exploring the current musical instrument renaissance, from sonic objects to expanded systems of musical expression

Musical instruments are undergoing a renaissance. Waves of techno-cultural innovation are melding arts and sciences, and steadily raising the tide on traditional crafts, turning them on their heads. The transformation of the musical instrument—through networks, sensors, data and computation—is not only a story about the craft of making musical tools,

By Emily Engle - Oct 17, 2017

Nigel Langley Jr Lands Design Job at adidas' Brooklyn Creator Farm Through Instagram—At 17 Years Old

A look at how social media can successfully propel millennial careers

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

By Jon Kolko - Oct 16, 2017

The New Materialism of the Home 

Modernist Studio looks into the future of the branded home experience

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

By Andy Law - Aug 28, 2017

Interesting Collaborations Between Robots and People

A look at why using robots to our advantage in the workplace is of utmost importance

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,

By Randy Swearer - May 31, 2017

Why I'm Optimistic about the Future of Work, Robots and All

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,

By Coroflot Team - Apr 18, 2017

Questioning the Cult of the Sketch

Do designers need sketching skills to be successful?

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.

By Michael DiTullo - Apr 17, 2017

A Short History of Design Leadership

Why designers should demand a seat at the table

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

By Shannon Rogers - Oct 27, 2016

Hand Tool School #7: Does Your Workspace Inspire You?

Let there be light (just not too much of it)

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

By Joel Moskowitz - Oct 26, 2016

Tools & Craft #20: How to Make the Mundane Tasks in Your Design Job Meaningful

Idle hands do the devil's work

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

By Chris Murray - Mar 01, 2016

How Many Industrial Design Concepts Is Too Many?

Bresslergroup’s director of industrial design on why four to six concepts might be the sweet spot.

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

By Jinsop Lee - Feb 12, 2016

Why Is Sex So Good?

It incorporates all five senses—just as design should

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

By Bruce and Stephanie Tharp - Feb 02, 2016

Governments Warming up to Discursive Design?

Selling out, vacuous appropriation, or the natural course of things?

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.

By Ed Stubbs - Jan 10, 2016

Driverless or Desire-less?

How will we make a mobile living room sexy?

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

By Gordon Stott - Jan 05, 2016

How to Fix Prefab Architecture? Make It More Like Product Design

Connect Homes’ cofounder argues for a new approach to modular home building.

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

By Doremy Diatta - Oct 20, 2015

A Matter of Mind

How can product designers respond to the human condition?

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

By Chris Murray - Apr 30, 2015

The End of Product Failure

Bresslergroup's director of industrial design on three technologies that will take the risk out of product innovation

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

By Thomas Wendt - Apr 07, 2015

Questioning Implicit Linearity

An Excerpt from Design for Dasein

"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

By Sam Jacob - Mar 04, 2015

The Real Smart City

We are right to remain suspicious of techno-utopian urban fantasies—especially when they come to us through corporate interests.

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 Core Jr - Dec 08, 2014

Rethinking Design, Consumerism and the Environment

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...

By Don Norman - Dec 06, 2014

Why DesignX? Designers and Complex Systems

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...

By Core Jr - Nov 20, 2014

Expectations and Empathy: The Future of Product Design

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...

By Core Jr - Aug 27, 2014

On Lightness: Sketches on the Connectivity of Art, by Marc Hohmann

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...

By Ray Hu - Jul 18, 2014

Drawing a Foregone Conclusion: A Measured Defense of Airbnb's New Logo

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...

By Ray Hu - Jan 10, 2014

The Future Mundane Revisited

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...

By Michael DiTullo - Jan 07, 2014

Thoughts on the Term Industrial Design

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...

By Ray Hu - Jan 02, 2014

Core77 2013 Year in Review: High-Tech Headlines

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...

By Kat Bauman - Dec 30, 2013

Core77 2013 Year in Review: Maker Culture - The Good, The Bad and The Future

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 Core Jr - Dec 24, 2013

On Design Ambition, by Martyn Perks

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...

By Ray Hu - Oct 09, 2013

Beijing Design Week 2013: The 'Real' Dashilar / Closing Remarks

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...

By Core Jr - Jul 23, 2013

We Are Makers: Documenting a Burgeoning Movement, by Nathan Driskell

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...

By Daniel Stillman - Nov 27, 2012

Design Process Kills Creativity / Design Process Creates Creativity

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...