By Rain Noe - Aug 16

You Have Less Than 3 Days Left to Get a Discounted Lifetime Membership to Public Goods

Middleman-free discounted household goods. (Some math required)

Public Goods is the tiny company hoping to make a huge impact on our personal finances. Entrepreneur Morgan Hirsh's mission is to manufacture common household consumables—shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toilet paper, cleaning products, et cetera—and sell them directly to the consumer at cost. By eliminating middlemen and retailers they can sell,

By David Frane - Aug 11

Hand Block Printing Wallpaper

This Pathé film shows how high-end wallpaper was once made in the U.K.

I dislike wallpaper, but this 1963 film almost makes me like it. It's not the aesthetics that appeal to me but the artistry and craft that go into making the product. Except for reproductions of William Morris designs, I don't suppose much wallpaper is made this way anymore. I particularly

By David Frane - Aug 10

Behold the Wonder of the Wooden Wagon Wheel!

See modern-day wheelwrights fabricate this surprisingly sophisticated component of a 20-mule team wagon.

I'm a big fan of the desert and have been to Death Valley a number of times. At the ruins of the Harmony Borax Works, not far from the visitor center at Furnace Creek, are two of the original wagons used to haul borax to a railroad 165 miles away.

By Rain Noe - Aug 10

Don't Be Scammed By Fake, Harmful Eclipse-Viewing Sunglasses. Here's a List of Legit Brands & Sources

…including where you can get some for free!

On August 21st the U.S. will experience a rare phenomenon, a nationwide solar eclipse. Because this upcoming one can be seen from the east coast all the way to the west, millions of Americans will view it. Obviously you cannot stare directly into the sun, even during an eclipse, without

By Rain Noe - Aug 10

You Can Now Download 26,000 Rare Songs Digitized From Obsolete 78 RPM Records

...all for free, and with a lot more on the way

Vinyl-lovers know and play LPs and 45s, but few have the more obscure, earlier-generation 78 r.p.m. records. A lot of that is down to materials choices; while vinyl is reasonably durable, 78s were made from more brittle shellac and tend to shatter over time. For that reason, The Great 78

By David Frane - Aug 09

5 Ways to Hack Your Chucks

How do you reinvigorate a 100-year old sneaker design? You hack it and make it your own.

My friend Gary showed up at our book club wearing a pair of Chuck Taylors. Nothing unusual about that except that he's in his 70s and had no idea they were in style. He's been wearing Chucks since the 1950s—just the way they come out of the box. But

By Rain Noe - Aug 07

Game of Thrones Recap: "The Spoils of War"

Winterfell's advanced wheel design, Maester Qyburn proves to be a UI genius

[Spoilers ahead.] Last night's surprisingly good mid-season episode of "Game of Thrones" was primarily shot outdoors. Even still, there were dozens of scenes we had to freeze-frame and lighten to get a better look at things. The object that most interested us was Bran's wheelchair. Obviously this is not

By Rain Noe - Aug 07

Travel-Loving Dad Invents Car-Top Tent That Sets Up in 30 Seconds

The Skycamp provides King-size comfort, minus the set-up hassles

In 2009, roadtrip-loving Soon Park took his wife and two daughters on one heck of a camping journey: They drove all over America, racking up 58,000 miles over a span of three years. Park found himself dissatisfied with the UX of the conventional camping trailer they were towing, and upon

By Rain Noe - Aug 03

Yea or Nay? The Lensball, a Crystal Sphere Meant to Jazz Up Your Instagram

Bauble or keeper?

The folks over at Lensball are selling a physical photography accessory that will presumably appeal to the Instagram generation. The eponymous product is simply a sphere made out of scratch-resistant K9 crystal, in two sizes: 60mm ($25) and 80mm ($35). The lensball will of course flip the image upside down,

By Rain Noe - Jul 31

Game of Thrones: "The Queen's Justice" Recap

The objects, furniture and interiors you missed because the picture is so freaking dark

As per usual, last night's episode of "Game of Thrones" was so visually dark that you couldn't see how much work the set designers put in. An example: Here's another. It's so dark in this scene that you can't even tell there's a guard standing behind Jon Snow and Ser

By Core Jr - Jul 27

Convenient Desk Accessories That Will Make Your Life Easier

Soup up your workflow with these 9 office items and apps

A selection of items that will enhance your work experience rather than further clutter your desk space.

By Rain Noe - Jul 26

Four New Objects We Didn't Expect to See From Ikea

The new designs are moody and, dare we say it, stylish

Ikea's getting ready to release their 2018 catalog. While it won't be available until August, we got a look at a pre-release version, and went through it to see if anything jumped out at us. We found the new furniture offerings to be standard fare, but there are four new

By David Frane - Jul 26

The Baseball as Folk Art

You don't have to like the sport to love what George Sosnak did with baseballs.

Umpire George Sosnak was good at his chosen profession but he was better as a folk artist, chronicling the history of the sport by inking highly detailed drawings and text onto baseballs. George Sosnak (courtesy Chrysler Museum of Art)Baseball people knew and valued his art during his lifetime and

By David Frane - Jul 24

Urushi Ratchet Handles

Incredibly beautiful and insanely expensive.

Looking for a gift for the tool user who has everything—and I mean everything—how about an Urushi Ratchet Handle? For a mere $2,000-$4,000 you can get one of the handful of these things made each year. Urushi is obtained from the sap of the lacquer tree and is so central

By Rain Noe - Jul 21

Forget Ant Colonies. Here's a Desktop Termite Habitat

Watch them destroy wood in a controlled environment

It might be tough for me to sell you an inch-thick cross-section of Douglas Fir for $125. But if I encased it in acrylic and placed a live colony of termites in there, maybe you'd give it a second look. That's the hope of the folks behind the Termitat, a

By Rain Noe - Jul 21

The One Low-Tech Design Feature All Rolling Carry-On Suitcases Should Have

With more and more of us traveling more frequently these days, luggage design has become a hot category for design entrepreneurs. As one example this Samsara design, billed as "The world's first aluminum smart suitcase," recently sought just $15,000 in pledges but pulled in a whopping $293,192. New luggage

By Rain Noe - Jul 20

Clever Designs for Perpetual Calendars

…that all have one glaring design flaw

For those of you that still use physical calendars, maybe you like having a dozen photos of hapless kittens or shirtless firemen cycling through the months. But a subset of you might prefer a single grid that will serve for the entire year and that doesn't have any pages to

By Rain Noe - Jul 19

Nooz Optics' Minimalist, Handily-Portable Reading Glasses

For occasional use, these are designed to be convenient

For those not already saddled with eyeglasses or contacts, it can be handy to have a pair of reading glasses on hand. In New York City at least, menu font designers and restaurant lighting designers seem determined to make menus impossible to read. For situations like these, French company Nooz

By Core Jr - Jul 17

Bro Tip: the FLEXR Folding Pullup Bar

Lump this into the "how has someone not thought of this yet?" category

You know a product has been missing from the market when it goes up on Kickstarter and receives 10 times the amount of funding it requested. Recently, that product turns out to be the FLEXR pull up bar, very surprisingly from our research one of the first of its kind.

By Rain Noe - Jul 17

A Medieval British Anti-Counterfeiting System: Split Tally Sticks

When woodgrain was used as an authentication factor

I remember tearing money in half, back when things were all cash, when you needed a guarantee that someone would wait for you. I'm not sure if this was a New York City thing or if they did it in your town too. For example, let's say I took a

By Rain Noe - Jul 14

Creating a Gigantic Super Soaker That Can Cut Watermelons in Half

This thing is like a portable waterjet cutter

Mark Rober, the ex-NASA-engineer behind that giant Nerf gun, is again scaling up a toy firearm designed for children. Rober teamed up with Bob Clagett to create a giant-sized Supersoaker that practically has the capabilities of a waterjet cutter: You reckon Rober got the idea after seeing this scene in

By Rain Noe - Jul 14

Woman Taking Selfie at Gallery Accidentally Knocks Over $200,000 Worth of Art

Narcissism + display pedestals set up like dominoes = disaster

British artist Simon Birch is the creative force behind The 14th Factory, an L.A.-based industrial warehouse that's been converted to an art gallery. The gallery, which features the work of dozens of artists, was designed by Birch to be interactive. But perhaps not this interactive: According to Hyperallergic, The footage

By Core Jr - Jul 13

Fit a Weekend Trip Into One Backpack

Here are some items to help you get away with packing light

In an ideal world, I could pack for several weeks worth of travel into one small backpack, which if you're bringing your normal essentials could potentially be impossible. Thankfully, there's a world out there full of designers trying to make it so we can, all the while creating products we

By Rain Noe - Jul 11

Hell in a Handbasket: A Security Lock for Pints of Ice Cream

Ben & Jerry's Euphori-Lock is, sadly, not a gag

What is this world coming to? First we saw the Fridge Locker, a lockable plastic cage one must use to protect their food inside communal refrigerators. Now we see this insane Ben-&-Jerry's-branded combination lock for ice cream pints: I thought (or hoped) it was a gag, but the thing is

By Rain Noe - Jul 11

How Would People React to Having an Additional Thumb?

To find out, London-based designer Danielle Clode created a functioning one

While going for her Masters at the Royal College of Arts' Design Products Programme, Danielle Clode devised an interesting project that's part prosthetic and part conversation starter: The Third Thumb. By 3D printing in disparate materials and rigging up the mechanicals, Clode created a workable, functional limb extension. Here's

By Rain Noe - Jul 06

The Fascinating History of the Pen

…and how to succeed, and fail, in business by trying to build an empire with similar products

This should be required viewing for all industrial design students. The story starts off with the history of the modern pen which, fascinatingly, was prompted by spilled ink ruining a contract. What follows is a tale of clever design, mastery of materials, ergonomic considerations and above all, business savvy.

By David Frane - Jul 03

Tennis Ball Manufacturing Then and Now

Except for the scale of production and a greater reliance on automation little has changed since 1961.

When Henry the 8th played tennis the balls, he used were leather with hair or wool sewn inside. It was not until the late 19th century that tennis balls reached their modern form—pressurized rubber with a felt cover. By 1961, tennis balls were produced in factories using methods that are

By Rain Noe - Jul 03

How to Build a Simple, Effective Smartphone Projector

This should totally be an Industrial Design 101 assignment

Matt from UK-based DIY Perks shows you how to build his design for a smartphone projector. The design is impressive in that it leaves the phone out, making it easy to grab if a call comes in, and the construction method is pretty darn simple. I'd love to see this