By Rain Noe - Aug 15 New

The Ripple Rug: Carpet + Velcro = Successful Product Design for Cats

This "pet enrichment toy" is a good example of creative design with minimal materials

To non-pet-owners this may seem like a silly application, but this is actually a very clever use of materials. It's got the simplicity of a student design project but the business brilliance of a shrewd marketer. The Ripple Rug is simply two pieces of carpet, one filled with random holes

By Fictiv Inc. - Aug 14

How to Set Up Your Files for Multimaterial 3D Printing

When you're ready to get with Polyjet

One of the major benefits of printing in Polyjet is the ability to print in multiple materials for a single part. This allows you to simulate overmolds, create soft touch applications, and build living hinges among many other applications. We get a lot of questions about how to prepare files

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 08

Behind the Scenes of Game of Thrones' "Loot Train Attack"

Here's how you film a dragon strafing run, using real fire

[Spoilers.] HBO typically releases an "inside the episode" video after each episode of "Game of Thrones." These behind-the-scenes vids are typically just a few minutes long. But after Sunday's epic episode, fans were treated to an extra-long behind-the-scenes look at how they created, among other things, the crazy sequences of

By Rain Noe - Aug 07

How an SLA 3D Printer Works

Over a million tiny mirrors

Some or most of you understand, intellectually, how an SLA 3D printer works: Light is fired in a particular pattern into liquid resin, curing a thin layer of it. Subsequent layers are built atop (or beneath) the one before. But in this video Bill Hammack, a/k/a The Engineer Guy, breaks

By Rain Noe - Aug 03

Hi-Tech Version of the Boyfriend Couch: "Husband Storage Pods" for Shopping Malls

The waiting game

As the stereotype goes, women love shopping and men hate it. Thus Shanghai's Global Harbor mega-mall has installed two "husband storage" pods where wives can drop their bored husbands off. The single-occupancy glass pods are kitted out with a chair and a gaming rig loaded up with "retro 1990s games;"

By Rain Noe - Aug 01

Brilliant Method for Forming Compound Surfaces with FoamCore!

This technique is so good, you'll almost want to keep it a secret from your classmates

I've always thought of FoamCore like sheetrock: If you score it you can get it to curve on one axis, but never two. Well, I've just been proven wrong. Here in Part 3 of his FoamCore modelmaking tutorial series, industrial designer Eric Strebel demonstrates his clever technique for creating compound

By Emily Engle - Aug 01

Is Designing High Performance Laceless Sneakers a Challenge?

adidas's UltraBOOST goes laceless, leaving us with a few questions for footwear designers

Laceless sneakers are nothing new, especially for adidas. But besides cleats, it's tough to find a pair designed for high performance. Enter adidas's first laceless UltraBOOST sneakers, announced last week. Designed for runners, the laceless UltraBOOSTs use Primeknit technology to their fullest advantage. Due to its decrease in elasticity, the

By Rain Noe - Aug 01

How NYC Got Rid of a 2,400-Ton Bridge Span in an Eco-Friendly Way

So long, Kosciuszko Bridge

We native New Yorkers know that the best view of Manhattan is not from the Brooklyn Promenade, which only shows you downtown. The best view is from the Kosciuszko Bridge, which gives you a lengthwise view of the entire skyline. (It's the shot they use in the opening credits of

By Fictiv Inc. - Jul 31

From SketchUp to 3D Printer: 3 Common Surface Modeling Issues & How to Fix Them

You've created a seamless design—structurally sound, sufficiently thick, and mindful of overhangs. However, you get your part back to find out that it's not printable! Many of the errors we see stem from how the digital model was created and often the main problems come down to whether the design

By Rain Noe - Jul 27

Are Facebook Messenger and Other Apps Listening to You Through Your Phone? Here's How to Turn the Microphone Off

Bet you didn't know the mic is set to "on" by default

A Core77 staffer recently recounted how she had been talking about a particular product with a friend. Not Googling it, just discussing it verbally. In subsequent days she noticed ads popping up on her feed for that particular product. Coincidence? As it turns out, if you have the Facebook Messenger

By Rain Noe - Jul 25

Lenovo Shows Off Folding Tablet Prototype

Flexible LEDs are coming, and here's how they'd work

We all know flexible LED screens are possible, and that someone will eventually come out with a folding smartphone/tablet. The question is, who? Apple? The newly-resurgent, design-focused Microsoft? Judging by the video below, it looks like it may be none other than Lenovo. Take a look at the prototype they

By Rain Noe - Jul 24

These Ingenious 2,500-Year-Old Chinese Wood Joints Make Buildings Earthquake-Proof

They're called "dougong" and they connect with just friction and gravity

Over thousands of years, the building science of timber framing developed independently in both Northern Europe and China. But one big difference between the regions is that China, by virtue of its size and geological traits, is prone to devastating earthquakes. Ancient Chinese builders thus needed a way to create

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

These Jaw-Dropping Computer Graphics, Modeling & Design Advances Will be on Display at SIGGRAPH 2017

Computer-generated situations are rapidly catching up to reality

Most of you have heard of SIGGRAPH, but if you haven't it's "the premier international forum for disseminating new scholarly work in computer graphics and interactive techniques." This year's conference starts at the end of the month, and this teaser video shows you some of the astonishing CG advancements that

By David Frane - Jul 20

RIP: Frances Gabe

Who so hated housework that she invented the self-cleaning house.

Long before the Roomba there was Frances GABe, an Oregon artist who so hated housework that she invented a self-cleaning house. GABe patented the design in 1984 and built a prototype, which she lived in for decades. She died in obscurity last December at the age of 101. Frances

By David Frane - Jul 19

Fit Shear Pliers #15

Wire-cutting pliers with a strange added feature.

I stumbled across this unusual product on the website of a vendor that specializes in German hand tools. It was completely unfamiliar and I was surprised to discover that the original model was patented in 1950. How did I miss seeing these before? It didn't help that Fit Pliers are

By Rain Noe - Jul 18

FoamCore Basics, Modeling Tips & Tricks for Designers, Part 2: Making Clean, Curved Shapes

Here in Part 2 of this series, pro industrial designer Eric Strebel shows you how to go beyond flat/straight shapes when working with FoamCore. Follow Strebel's tips to get a variety of different radii while keeping your piece clean-looking and professional:

By Rain Noe - Jul 18

A Glass Pool Table (With a Catch)

Designing for novelty, yea or nay?

As I've mentioned here before, when I was studying ID one of my (famous) design professors hated when people redesigned an existing object to be made from a different material. He'd surely hate this table, but I'd like to hear what you think. Australian company Elite Innovations is selling, in

By Rain Noe - Jul 17

The ShapeScale: Personal 3D Bodyscanning Device Shows You How Your Body has Changed Over Time

Creates a photorealistic 3D model of you in under a minute

After several weekends of too much beer and barbecue and not enough exercise, I go with the Bill Burr body image motivational system: I take my shirt off, look at myself in the mirror and start fat-shaming myself. This method isn't for everyone, of course, and die-hard fitness nuts

By Rain Noe - Jul 17

Game of Thrones Fans: So Just What is "Dragonglass," Anyway?

It can be used to make spears, scapels, dildoes

If you haven't seen last night's premiere of "Game of Thrones," stop reading this. Mild spoilers ahead.

By David Frane - Jul 14

Red Dot Award Winning Tools: Univet 5.0 Augmented Reality Safety Glasses

Move over fighter pilots, now factory workers and medical professionals can have their own heads-up displays.

Italian safety equipment manufacturer Univet just received a 2017 Red Dot Award for its augmented reality safety glasses. The glasses integrate Sony's "holographic waveguide technology" into eye protection that allows wearers to view real time data without looking up from what they are doing. A monocular projection system displays data

By Rain Noe - Jul 13

A Look Inside Bentley's Super Hi-Tech Woodshop

So THAT'S why these cars cost so much

At the Bentley Crewe factory in England, a series of craftspeople with both hand skills and access to high-end production machinery turn out the elaborate wood panels that festoon the cars' interiors. Laser cutters, veneer presses and five-axis CNC mills with automatic tool changers are all put into service alongside

By Rain Noe - Jul 13

Should Be a Design School Exercise: Every Year Engineering Students Design, Build and Race Canoes Made from Concrete

The American Society of Civil Engineers holds an annual National Concrete Canoe Competition

Here's an annual design/build competition for engineering students that design schools could take a cue from. Each year the American Society of Civil Engineers hosts a canoe race, with a catch: Students have to design and build the canoes out of concrete. While the competition is hosted in America,

By David Frane - Jul 13

Lamello Cabineo Knock-Down Cabinet Fittings

The CNC equivalent of a pocket screw, this new connector is optimized for use in particle board.

Lamello just announced the Cabineo, a press-in fitting for connecting butt joints in CNC cut cabinet boxes. A plastic insert with an integral metal screw, it can be installed in the shop and used to assemble the boxes at remote locations. There's no need to ship separate fasteners or parts