By Rain Noe - Jun 15

Kitty Hawk's Personal Flying Machines

Larry Page and Sebastian Thrun's company has a future that's up in the air

When stuck in traffic jams, every commuter must dream of being able to simply fly over the whole mess and get home. But flying cars are a long way off. Google co-founder Larry Page isn't waiting around for personal flying vehicles to be developed. Instead Page founded Kitty Hawk, a

By Victor Lazzaro - Jun 11

Finding the Right Materials in an Ocean of Options

Picking the perfect materials is tricky, but when you get it just right, almost nothing compares

As a designer, you can probably picture a finished product in your mind long before the specs are finalized. But even if that mental image is crystal clear, significant questions linger regarding how it will all come together—not the least of which being what materials you should use. In my

By Rain Noe - Jun 07

Autonomous Shared Cars Will Require Different Interior Materials Because People are Slobs

I'm a member of ZipCar, which I love for the convenience. But one thing that always reminds you that you're in a shared car is the state of the interiors. I've experienced the following in a ZipCar: Sticky steering wheels, candy wrappers and potato chip bags shoved into various orifices,

By Rain Noe - Jun 04

Drone Umbrellas, Yea or Nay?

I can't be the only person to think this is a terrible idea

Last year a British retailer was selling a DJI Phantom 4 (photo below) with an umbrella attachment. The device was said to "automatically [follow] you via your smartphone's GPS." It's no longer offered on their website. Now a Japanese company, Asahi Power services, is trying their hand at a drone-brella

By Rain Noe - Jun 04

A Second Designer Experiments with Using Plastic Bottles as Heat-Shrink Joinery

First Charlène Guillaume, now Micaella Pedros

A couple of years ago we looked at the work of Charlène Guillaume. While studying at France's ENSCI-Les Atelier (the National School for Industrial Design), Guillaume experimentally used discarded PET bottles as heat-shrink wrap to join wood: Bottle It from charlene guillaume on Vimeo.While not aesthetically attractive, we thought

By Emily Engle - May 30

Our Favorite Skateboard Designs from frog's DECKxDESIGN Challenge

NYC-based design studios were tasked with rethinking the traditional skateboard

For this year's NYCxDesign, frog partnered with Art Start for the second year in a row to help bring creativity to NYC's homeless and at-risk youth through their DECKxDESIGN challenge. Following a successful inaugural year focused on dart boards, this year pivoted focus towards a different type of board—the skateboard.

By Rain Noe - May 29

Visual Guide: What the Actual Trees of 52 Different Wood Species Look Like

From Acacia to Zebrawood

If you've seen our excellent series on different species of wood, by looking at boards you can identify the ones most commonly used in furniture and homebuilding. But do you know what an actual Poplar, Walnut or Zebrawood tree looks like? Could you actually draw one if you were playing

By Rain Noe - May 29

Browser Extension That Pauses Video When You Look Away, Yea or Nay?

From a UX perspective, what's a mere inconvenience vs. a hassle?

I consume a lot of video for work. My viewing is frequently interrupted by phone calls, dogs, delivery people hitting the buzzer, etc. Each time this happens I reflexively hit the spacebar to pause the video--and instead the browser window scrolls down half a screen while the video continues to

By Rain Noe - May 25

Check Out These Demonstrations of LeapMotion's AR-Based "Virtual Wearables"

What will AR interfaces look like? Well, if you're willing to wear Leap Motion's "Project North Star" headset, which looks like this… …the interfaces might look like this: The big floppy buttons are interesting. It's still early days, but it seems smaller, more precise buttons probably aren't in

By Christian Ervin - May 18

The Camera, Transformed by Machine Learning

How Machine Learning is reshaping the point-and-shoot

Scroll through the hundreds of icons for "camera" on Noun Project or the 124,706 community-generated drawings of cameras on Google Quick Draw, and you'll notice they're all remarkably similar. Together, they suggest a shared cultural understanding of a camera: a classic point-and-shoot. But the cameras we encounter

By Rain Noe - May 15

Ford's Experimental Haptic Glass Helps the Blind "See"

Turning windows into tactile displays via vibrating "pixels"

Using outside-of-the-box thinking, Ford has prototyped a "display" for the blind using a material we don't typically think of as useful to the sightless: Glass. By partnering with Aedo, an Italian research firm that uses digital technology to create interfaces for the blind, they've developed a device that can vibrate

By Michael DiTullo - May 14

Yo! C77 Sketch: Tips for Rendering Chrome

In this episode of Yo! C77 Sketch, Michael DiTullo shows us how to properly render chrome without overdoing it

Chrome can be a tricky thing to draw. The temptation is always to over do it. In this video I'll show you a light and easy chrome technique that shows off the reflective, metallic nature of it without overdoing it. As always, if you have any questions or comments

By Rain Noe - May 11

Hell in a Handbasket: Robots That Can Run, A.I. That Sounds Human

Two disturbing technological developments revealed this week. One, Boston Dynamics has taught their Atlas robot to both run (okay, jog) and jump over obstacles: Two, Google has taught their "Duplex" A.I. assistant to do the "Ums," "mm-hmms" and up-speak to make her sound like an actual human being: Why in

By Emily Engle - May 10

Nike Files Patent for Miniature Treadmills Inside of Sneakers

You think we're joking...

Let the below image sink in for a moment: Yes, what you're looking at is a miniature treadmill inside of a sneaker, and yes, this is a real patent that Nike recently filed. Looks like when a bunch of employees left Nike because of that sexual harassment scandal all of

By Rain Noe - May 08

What If Lids Could Do More Than Just Seal a Container?

Nendo re-thinks closures for vessels with their "Air Lids"

A fluoroelastomer is a variant of synthetic rubber. Chemical- and stain-resistant, it's used to make seals in air conditioners and automobiles. Nendo, however, imagined more domestic applications for the stuff, and partnered with air conditioner manufacturer Daikin, a company well-versed in fluoroelastomers, to make a new series of kitchen objects.

By Rain Noe - May 04

Hell in a Handbasket: A Dutch Eco-Friendly Urinal Design That Plays Advertisements While You Pee

…all over the screen, in protest

Last year I was disappointed to learn of in-bathroom advertising: Thankfully I've not seen these at a restaurant near me, but that doesn't mean this particular industry is stalling. From the Netherlands comes this product called Mr. Friendly, a urinal with a built-in monitor for running ads on. I can't

By Arnold Martin - May 01

Sponsored Post: Hands-On with Unreal Studio

Real time rendering tool lets you create fast, beautiful animations, renderings and product demonstrations

Epic Games is in the process of rolling out an exciting new design visualization tool based on their popular game engine Unreal 4. Currently in open beta, Unreal Studio is intended to bring real time rendering to design visualization and provide industrial designers and architects tools to create fast, stunningly

By Emily Engle - Apr 30

Standards Manual's New Book Graphically Explains the History of the Emoji

Emoji has become almost like a second language to us, but where did it come from?

At its core, Emoji is a supplement language designed to accompany our own languages to give the appearance of human emotion during digital conversations. Weird, right? When MoMA announced that they had acquired the original set of emojis from Japan, people were confused for understandable reasons. Its often difficult for

By Rain Noe - Apr 27

Design/Build Competition: Make Something Out of One Bag of Quikrete

First prize is $2,500, and based on last year's winner, you've got a good shot at this

For the third year in a row Quikrete is running their One Bag Wonder Competition, where entrants design and build something using one bag of their product. First prize is $2,500. Second prize is $1,500. Third prize is $500. Fourth prize is a big bag of nothing. Here's

By Rain Noe - Apr 27

Making Time for Bio-Plastics: Mondaine Experiments with a Castor-Oil-Based Watch

The Essence collection is the first step in what will hopefully become a movement

From bans on plastic straws and bags to concerns about the ever-growing Pacific Garbage Patch (which is now three times the size of France), there is a movement towards plastic reduction that we all need to support. Obviously this can't happen overnight, but can be viable if thousands of companies

By Rain Noe - Apr 26

Chinese Scientists Develop Wood Composite Made with the Help of Crabs and Shrimp

Are you chitin me

I know this is a weird one, so bear with me. Facts: Populous China has a high demand for wood-based materials. The demand far exceeds China's forestry resources. China has a ready supply of wood waste (sawdust, chips, offcuts) from its factories. So it would be ideal if they could

By Rain Noe - Apr 24

Advanced Bondo Tips for Designers and Modelmakers

How to make extrusions, flexible parts and do the Bondo "squeeze"

Now that you've watched Part 1 and Part 2 of the Bondo tips series, here's Part 3, which industrial designer Eric Strebel has saved some seriously cool tricks for. Strebel shows you how to extrude it, how to make it both flexible and sandable, and how to use it to

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