By Rain Noe - Oct 23 New

Mesmerizing GIF of How Chicken Wire is Made

The gabion machine feeds wire with a fancy splitting trick

When looking at the hexagonal negative space in chicken wire, you have to wonder: How the heck do they make that? Well, this GIF shows you the gist of it: It took me a few moments of watching it to register that those wire-feeding cylinders are actually splitting in half.

By Rain Noe - Oct 23 New

Airline Pilot's Stunning Long-Exposure Photos From the Cockpit

Christiaan van Heijst shows us things passengers never get to see

Airline pilots see all kinds of cool stuff which we, riding in the back of the plane, will never get to. Enter Christiaan van Heijst, who's not only a commercial cargo pilot on a Boeing 747, but a photographer as well. Van Heijst brings his camera gear aboard and, once

By Rain Noe - Oct 23 New

Two Farmhands Invent Brilliant Repair Machine, Now Get to Enjoy Fixing, Beers and Traveling

Solving underexamined farm problems for profit and ecological good

Following my recent move, I've learned that farms have a unique waste situation that doesn't exist in urban life: While farms are filled with tons of useful buildings, tools and infrastructure, the periphery is often a graveyard of discarded materials and broken machinery. In the city we throw these things

By Core Jr - Oct 22

TODAY is Your Last Chance to Get Tickets for the 2018 Core77 Conference!

Get ready for some business fun

This Thursday October 25th we'll be gathering in sunny freezing cold Brooklyn for the annual Core77 Conference. This year the conference will consist of talks and workshops focusing on how to launch and grow your own creative business, a topic typically not taught in design school. Our series of talks

By Rain Noe - Oct 22

Functional Workwear: A Tradesman Reviews Carhartt vs. Duluth Trading Co.

Is it possible for workwear to be overbuilt?

Functional Workwear: A Tradesman Reviews Carhartt vs. Duluth Trading Co. Is it possible for workwear to be overbuilt? We all know clothes are disposable, but it feels a lot better to throw away a garment that you have worn the hell out of and caused to fail, rather than because

By Core Jr - Oct 22

Machine and Fabrication Shop Destroyed by Hurricane Michael Needs Your Help to Rebuild

Maritech Machine is reaching out for help

Over the summer we wrote about Xometry, an on-demand manufacturing platform (and, full disclosure, a Core77 advertiser) that helps industrial designers get instant quotes. Now Xometry is trying to help out a supplier of theirs, Maritech Machine, whose Florida-based shop was destroyed by Hurricane Michael last week. Following the loss

By Rain Noe - Oct 22

Task Lamp with a Difference: The Herston Self-Balancing Desk Lamp

Elegant, minimal, functional, and made from desirable materials

In last week's "Currently Crowdfunding: Notable Campaigns of the Week" we printed a brief mention of the Herston self-balancing desk lamp, but it's such a kick-ass design that we want to take a closer look at it here. A task lamp is one of the most important things you can

By Rain Noe - Oct 22

Kyocera's Tiny, Minimalist Credit-Card-Sized Cell Phone

Check out the size difference between the KY-01L vs. iPhones

When Punkt released their Jasper-Morrison-designed "dumb phone," above, it sold out instantly. The $295 MP 01 only did two things--make phone calls and send text messages--and in 2016 that was an attractive alternative for those seeking respite from smartphone addiction. Two years later, the phone is either still sold out

By Emily Engle - Oct 19

Jamie Wolfond Thinks Designers Could Benefit from Reimagining the Traditional Design Process

"If the manufacturing process is not involved in a very literal way at the beginning, then sometimes the result is stifled by someone's preconception"

Many designers follow a traditional design process, where selecting a factory to manufacture with comes after the design process is completed. Jamie Wolfond and his brand Good Thing, however, choose to put an emphasis on specific materials and production methods at the beginning of the design process, working with factories, manufacturers and outside designers to bring unexpected twists on classic home items to life.

By Rain Noe - Oct 19

Primitive Timing/Lighting Device: A Self-Extinguishing Coiled Candle

I'm not sure whether this will hearten or dispirit design entrepreneurs

This seems like an industrial design student project that actually got picked up by a manufacturer. It's a coiled beeswax candle made by a company called Candle by the Hour, and it was supposedly "part of the 1600s dating scene. Known as a 'courting candle', protective parents would light one

By Rain Noe - Oct 19

Entertaining Video of How Banksy's Self-Destructing Artwork was Supposed to Function

Someone paid $1.1 million for partially shredded paper

At a Sotheby's auction this month, Banksy had one of his pieces on offer, mounted in a baroque, self-created frame. After the bidding war ended at a staggering £860,000 (USD $1.1 million), an alarm sounded and the frame revealed a surprising capability. Here's how it went down, followed by footage

By Rain Noe - Oct 19

An Easy Way to Build Retaining Walls: Leave the Concrete in the Bag, Stack Like Legos, Wet With a Hose

Surprisingly, this seems to work quite well

Building a retaining wall in the conventional ways is not a trivial matter. So DIYers have come up with an interesting trick: Rather than messing around with mortar, they lay the walls down like Lego pieces, using concrete while it's still in the bag. That's right, the idea is that

By Core Jr - Oct 18

2018 Core77 Conference Ticket Sales End This Monday, October 22

Don't miss out on the best design party of the year!

Next Thursday, October 25th we'll be gathering in Brooklyn for the annual Core77 Conference. This year's conference is focused on highlighting the realities of launching and growing your own creative business. Through a series of talks and workshops, you'll hear from other successful creative professionals in various design-related fields on

By Core Jr - Oct 18

Sponsored Post: Currently Crowdfunding: Notable Campaigns of the Week

Live an ad-free life and block out your annoying coworkers

A roundup of Kickstarter projects currently crowdfunding for your viewing (and spending!) pleasure. Go ahead, free your disposable income:

By Rain Noe - Oct 18

Panasonic's Noise-Canceling Office Blinders

Wear Space is the antidote to open-plan offices

Panasonic's Noise-Canceling Office Blinders Wear Space is the antidote to open-plan offices So here's what it's come to: Penny-pinching corporations insist on stuffing us workers into open office plans, which everyone hates. It's impossible to concentrate in a bullpen. Thus Panasonic has invented Wear Space, a pair of noise-canceling headphones

By Rain Noe - Oct 18

Jaguar Demonstrates the Artificial, Safety-Minded Sounds Their Electric Cars Will Make

A futuristic whirring warns pedestrians of the car's approach

The noise of an internal combustion engine provides important feedback not only for drivers, but for pedestrians. For the vision-impaired pedestrian, the sound a car makes may be the only warning that it is approaching at all. Hence electric cars, which produce no engine noise at all, present a problem.

By Rain Noe - Oct 18

I Learned This Labor-Saving Trick for Installing Fence Posts in Concrete—Without Having to Use Water

Brains, not brawn

As I learned during the construction of my dog-fenced run, erecting farm infrastructure is a combination of hard work and clever labor-saving tricks. The fence is 300 feet long, with thirty 4x4 posts set ten feet apart, welded wire stretched between. Sherman, the fellow I hired to put the

By Steven Johnson - Oct 17

Steven M. Johnson's Bizarre Invention #324: The Cro-Magnon Hotel

Steven M. Johnson's "Patent Depending" series of inventions range from social commentary to plain ol' bizarre, and they always give us a laugh. So we've contracted him to let us publish one every week.

By Joel Moskowitz - Oct 17

Tools & Craft #111: Making Stuff, and Other Human Impulses

How do you get students to the point at which they can produce something?

Several months ago a gentleman who runs a local maker space invited me to teach some hand tool classes at the space. I was happy to have the discussion, but we got hung up by a central question: How do you get students to the point at which they can

By Rain Noe - Oct 17

Apple Releases Online Tool That Lets You See What Data They've Collected On You

What's on your phone, vs. on their servers?

I've pretty much accepted that if I discuss something out loud, ads start popping up for that thing when I go online. If I tell you that I think my phone is listening to me, I sound like a crazy person. So I have no explanation as to how this

By Rain Noe - Oct 17

Off-Road Problem Solving: How to Free Your Stuck Vehicle Using a Spare Tire, or a Polyester Sling

A fifth tire or the Deadman Earth Anchor can get you out of a jam

This unattributed photo of a stuck off-road motorist has been making the internet rounds. As you can see, the driver has dug a hole, wedged his spare tire in there with his jack and is using it as a winch point to pull himself out. If you're in a situation

By Rain Noe - Oct 17

An Optical Illusion…That Relies on Sound to Work

Is it cheating if they involve your ears?

I was skeptical when I heard about this--but I "fell" for it. Researchers at Caltech came up with an optical illusion that relies on sound to make you see something that isn't really there. Try it: Did it work on you? Their full description: "Caltech researchers have developed these two

By Rain Noe - Oct 16

How to Create Faux Marble Slabs Using Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete

Mike Clifford shows you helpful tips and tricks for casting and finishing it yourself

Whether you're an ID student or an independent designer/builder, at some point you might want to create something using marble. But while that material is beautiful, it's pricey, tricky to transport and difficult to work. It would be ideal if you could create your own marble, in whatever form or

By Rain Noe - Oct 16

Vintage UI Design Gold Mine: Here's a Photo Database of Old Control Panels

"In praise of dials, toggles, buttons, and bulbs"

Did you like that look at Vintage Soviet Control Rooms from earlier this year? An Unusual Design Aesthetic: Photos of Vintage Soviet Control Rooms An Unusual Design Aesthetic: Photos of Vintage Soviet Control Rooms An Unusual Design Aesthetic: Photos of Vintage Soviet Control Rooms If so you're going to

By Tenny Pinheiro - Oct 16

I'm Confused. Design Sprint or Lean Startup?  

A biased, but truthful perspective.

I guess if you landed here you are confused. That's okay because it is confusing. Well, at least if you try to look at it from a binary, reductionist, point of view. Let me start by saying that, in my experience product developing, it is never about choosing between one

By Rain Noe - Oct 16

Different Design Solutions for Clearing Clogged Gutters

The wide variety of approaches indicates no one has cracked the problem yet

Experimental design evolution is a fun thing to watch. I'm talking about that early stage, when multiple unrelated parties are all trying to solve the same problem--but taking wildly different approaches, ranging from clever to cockamamie. One such problem, I've discovered, is how to clean debris out of a high