By Rain Noe - Apr 19

Second Company Develops Sustainable Mushroom-Grown Leather, Will Debut it This Saturday

Mylo is tough, supple, eco-friendly, looks and feels like leather, and requires no animals

Remember MycoWorks, the company that developed leather that can be grown from mushroom roots? Now another company, Bolt Threads, has also cracked that biomaterials mystery and is bringing out its own version. Called Mylo, the offering from Bolt--a company that got its start by developing synthetic spider silk--appears to be

By Rain Noe - Apr 19

An Introduction to Bondo for Designers and Modelmakers

The many applications for polyester resin and body filler

When it comes to making models, few materials are as diverse (and yes, smell as bad) as Bondo. It sets up quickly, can easily be machined and shaped and sticks to just about anything. Here industrial designer Eric Strebel kicks off his series on Bondo's basics, demonstrating how he mixes,

By Rain Noe - Apr 18

Here's Our Idea for How an Omnidirectional Treadmill Would Work

I don't want to say that we're brilliant. So you say it

One of the hurdles that virtual reality designers face, in trying to bring their Ready Player One immersive worlds to fruition, isn't virtual; it's physical. It's to do with the fact that VR headsets currently require a physical tether, and that the wearer cannot stray far from that tether. Even

By Emily Engle - Apr 17

Behind the Scenes of COS x Phillip K. Smith III's Reflective 'Open Sky' Installation at Milan Design Week

The mirrored structures will be on view all week at the historic Palazzo Isimbardi

COS has returned to Milan Design Week for a seventh consecutive collaborative installation. Last year, the London-based fashion brand collaborated with Studio Swine to create a multi-sensory experience including a fountain of air-bubbles. This time around, the collaborator is Palm Springs-based designer Phillip K. Smith III , and for the

By Rain Noe - Apr 12

A Mechanical Flipdot Tetris Machine

For when the song no longer gets to your roommates

Playing Tetris is a reliable way of blowing off steam for many, with a side benefit being that the music may irritate your roommate. But if your roommate has become inured to the song, you can ratchet up the sonic presence of your game-playing by constructing a Tetris machine using

By Rain Noe - Apr 11

The Lifestyle Applications of Dyneema

Lightweight, super strong, durable, workable

We live in an exciting time of material developments. Previously if you wanted to build something durable, the go-to materials were rigid substances like metal and concrete; now materials scientists are smart enough to create brilliantly tough fibers that can be woven into flexible fabrics. Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber,

By Robert Grace - Apr 10

Sponsored Post: Material Implications for the Future of Mobility

The following is a sponsored post, courtesy of Covestro. It used to be that the lines between various key industry sectors, such as automotive, electrical/electronics, appliances and healthcare were relatively clear and distinct. No more. Current trends – as underscored by various pronouncements and product introductions at the

By Rain Noe - Apr 10

Resin Casting Tips & Tricks, Part 2

Eight ways to get better results with less mess and less errors

If you work with resin, you undoubtedly found industrial designer Eric Strebel's 7 Resin Casting Tips & Tricks useful. Now Strebel's back with another eight tips, covering how to eliminate air bubbles, tips for keeping the worksurface clean, how to think an excessively thick resin, how to put leftover or

By Rain Noe - Apr 09

Festo's Incredible Mobile Biomimetic Robots

Bats, kangaroos, spiders, butterflies, Jeffrey Wright and more

When Season 2 of "Westworld" premieres in a few weeks, I wouldn't be surprised to see that the androids were created by a future version of Festo. Festo, a German robotics company whose power-tool spin-off Festool is well-known amongst many of you, specializes in biomimetic robotic technology. Whereas Boston

By Emily Engle - Apr 05

Office Chairs Made from Recycled Fishing Nets!

Humanscale and Bureo are on a mission to drive the circular economy through the NextWave initiative

Humanscale's latest task chair, Smart Ocean, is an inventive update to the Diffrient Smart task chair, made with recycled fishing net material. The approximately 2 lbs. of recycled plastic used to produce the chair are sourced from ocean plastic pollution-driven company Bureo. Bureo's Net Positiva program transforms plastic fishing nets

By Flo Peters - Apr 04

Access+Ability Exhibition Features Products Developed by and with People with Disabilities

The Cooper Hewitt is using their platform to educate the public on the growing movement toward accessibility and inclusive design

Access+Ability is an exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum on view now through Sept. 3, 2018. It features products, projects and services developed by and with people with disabilities—physical, cognitive and sensory—in an effort to improve their ability to lead independent lives and engage with the world.

By Chris Lefteri - Mar 29

Sponsored Post: CFRTP is Able to Transition Carbon Fiber from Industrial to High-End Consumer Applications

The word "premium' continues to define new markets for consumer brands in everything from cars to appliances. It's a term that is also heavily reliant on materials to bring these sensory and performance stories to life. Haier, a world-leading brand

By Rain Noe - Mar 27

Will the Steel Tariffs Lead Us Towards Alternative, More Sustainable Building Materials?

The Open Source Wood Initiative hopes architects will share their modular engineered wood solutions

Most new construction in cities starts with steel. It remains to be seen if the upcoming steel tariffs will negatively impact the sector in terms of cost, but if it does, one side benefit might be renewed interest in a more sustainable alternative: Modular wood construction. "The only way to

By Rain Noe - Mar 26

Great Design, Materials Selection and UX: Oru's Improved Coast XT Folding Kayak

Origami and extrusions FTW

This should be a case study on how good design and material selection can yield an outstanding product that's a huge improvement over what came before. Kayaks have traditionally been made from wood, or fiberglass, or roto-molded polyethylene, or marine plywood. The materials are rigid, and an eight-foot-long kayak

By Rain Noe - Mar 22

Here's the Dashcam Footage of the Autonomous Uber Hitting the Pedestrian Who Later Died

If you were driving, could you have hit the brakes in time?

(Warning: Some of you may consider this footage a bit graphic.) The Tempe Police Vehicular Crimes Unit is investigating the self-driving Uber that struck a woman who later died from her injuries. Many of us following the autonomous space were very curious as to how it happened, but could only

By Emily Engle - Mar 21

adidas Recently Released Sneakers Designed to Look Good on Instagram

Giving social platforms power in the footwear design process and what that could mean for other industries

adidas recently unveiled a new silhouette called Deerupt, and if you ever had doubts social media could play a significant role in the design process, it's time to think again. If you religiously follow the sneaker world on Instagram, you've probably noticed an overload of images that look almost

By Rain Noe - Mar 21

Autonomous Car Alternative: Arrivo's "City Zipper" Car-Carrying Sleds

Now that an autonomous car has killed a pedestrian, interested parties are waiting to see what the legal ramifications will be. In the meantime, skittish lawmakers may start looking at safer alternatives to autonomous cars. One such system is by a company called Arrivo, and they're scheduled to complete construction

By Rain Noe - Mar 20

An Autonomous Vehicle Designed to Sacrifice Itself to Save Human Lives

Colorado's robo-truck will probably be adopted before self-driving taxis

Yesterday's news that an autonomous Uber killed a woman in Arizona has dealt a blow to the companies banking on autonomous cars. Details of the accident have yet to emerge, but Uber has pulled the plug on their North American testing for now, and the litigation that's sure to follow

By Rain Noe - Mar 19

Uber Autonomous Car Strikes and Kills Woman in Arizona

...and there was a hands-off monitor in the car at the time

Late last night in Tempe, Arizona, where Uber is running a trial of autonomous cars, one of their self-driving SUVs struck a woman who was crossing the street (apparently outside of the crosswalk, according to a police report quoted by Reuters). The victim, 49-year-old Elaine Herzberg, apparently did not die

By Rain Noe - Mar 19

Getting Wearables Right: Motiv's Smart Ring Should be a Lesson for Product Designers Seeking to Launch a New Product

World's Fair Nano Coverage: More Wearables with a Tale of Two Rings, Part 2

In the last entry we looked at the Talon gesture control ring, whose public reception will, we feel, be hamstrung by poor presentation. In contrast we think another smart ring we saw at the World's Fair Nano in San Francisco, called the Motiv Ring, is going to do well for

By Rain Noe - Mar 16

World's Fair Nano Coverage: Analyzing the UX of Wearables with Helix Cuffs vs. Apple's AirPods

Bracelet vs. pillbox

At the World's Fair Nano in San Francisco, multiple companies were hawking their wearable wares. The diversity in the category indicates that wearables are still unsolidified as a product category: Each company seems to be wondering "Should the design be led by technology/function, the user experience, or aesthetics?" In the

By Rain Noe - Mar 14

Never Mind Charging Your Phone: Cyborg Angel Giuffria Explains What It's Like Having to Charge Your Arm

"It has Bluetooth but not WiFi"

At SXSW Angel Giuffria, one of America's better-known cyborgs, encountered a lot of people that wanted her to demo her robotic arm. As a de facto spokeswoman for the prosthetic community, she gamely agreed, with the result being that her batteries wore down faster than normal. She then Tweeted this:

By Emily Engle - Mar 12

Do the New Post-it Extreme Notes Actually Work?

We stuck them to various surfaces over the weekend to find out

Post-it Notes are an invaluable tool when it comes to effective brainstorming sessions and leaving reminders for yourself in the office. Heck, they even make it incredibly easy to leave passive aggressive notes for roommates and family members. However, the peeling ends in this image are something I'm sure all

By Rain Noe - Mar 08

New Materials: Modumetal's Nanolaminate Alloys, Grown in a Tank, Outperform Steel

Forget about steel tariffs; Christina Lomasney is rewriting the future of metals

Right now steel tariffs are all over the news, with different people arguing where we should buy our steel. Options exist because steel is by and large the same whether it's produced in China or the U.S. But Seattle-based physicist Christina Lomasney, the President, CEO and co-founder of Modumetal, might

By Emily Engle - Mar 07

New Online Resource Colin Offers an Easy Way to Find and Communicate with Local Manufacturers

When starting a new product-based business, a major roadblock you'll likely hit is figuring how to bring your product to life for the first time. Outside of your homemade prototypes, you've never had to deal with finding a manufacturer before! But your product, whatever it may be, is in demand,

By Rain Noe - Mar 07

Future Tech: What are Your Ideas for Applications for These Display Concepts?

Universal Everything's 27 flexible display possibilities

In anticipation of the era when flexible display technology becomes viable, the UK-based digital art/design collective known as Universal Everything has envisioned a series of different display types. They've got one supercut that shows all 27 concepts which I'll place down at the bottom; I found the majority of them

By Rain Noe - Mar 07

Design Criticism: Vivo's Apex Smartphone Concept

Our thoughts on the pluses and minuses of the design features

Smartphone manufacturer Vivo has unveiled the Apex, a functioning concept smartphone that introduces some new features to the category. Check out the demo video first, then we'll get into it: The BezelSmartphone manufacturers all seem to be racing towards a bezel-less screen. (Confused about the difference between bevels and bezels?

By Rain Noe - Mar 06

Bambooee: Reusable, Cleanable Paper Towels Made from Bamboo

Better for the environment in the long run?

I try to be a conscientious consumer, but one single-use item that I go through a lot of is paper towels. I find them indispensable for cleaning up my kitchen, shop and photography studio, I order them in bulk from Staples, and it depresses me how many of them I