By Rain Noe - Aug 10

Inside Belkin, Part 2: The Industrial Design Process of the TrueClear Pro

An in-depth interview with Oliver Seil, VP of Design

After dropping and shattering my expensive iPhone several years ago, I replaced it and took steps to prevent it from happening again. I kept the phone inside an absurdly bulky, tank-like protective case by Pelican, completely obscuring the beauty that Apple's designers had slaved to produce. This case was

By Emily Engle - Jul 23

Good Thing Releases Food-Safe Vessels Designed by Car Mechanic Turned Product Designer Shinya Yoshida

For snacks, for keys—for both snacks and keys?

This morning, Good Thing announced a new product in their lineup—a trio of food-safe vessels designed by Japanese product designer, Shinya Yoshida. As former car mechanic, Yoshida naturally took inspiration from the flowing curves and shapes found in the auto industry when designing the G3 Vessels. The result is a

By Emily Engle - Jul 18

Sketchfab Launches Online Store for 3D Models that Allows Full Inspection Before Purchase

"What you see is what you get."

Sketchfab recently launched their Sketchfab store out of beta, which allows creative professionals and hobbyists to sell and purchase 3D models for web, mobile, AR and VR online. If you're on the creation/selling side, this means you finally have the chance to monetize your work. On the other end,

By Rain Noe - Jul 17

The Occupational Outlook for Industrial Designers, According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Employment growth rates, what skills are trending, and where in the U.S. industrial designers work

If you're an industrial designer and you want to find out if you're getting paid the right amount, well, that's why we have the Core77 Salary Guide. But those of you simply interested in the profession as a whole may wonder if, in this age of digital, our profession's importance

By Rain Noe - Jul 13

Resource for Designers: Here's How to Get Instant Quotes for On-Demand Manufacturing

With the merger of Xometry and MakeTime, making things in America is about to get a lot easier

"The ease of being able to upload a part," says Josh Haldeman, an industrial designer for protective gear company Bullard, "and instantly know what it's going to cost me is phenomenal." Haldeman is referring to the instant online quoting process for Xometry, a company that connects manufacturers and fabricators with

By Rain Noe - Jul 09

After USPS Uses Wrong Statue of Liberty Image on Stamp, Sculptor Awarded $3.5 Million for Copyright Infringement

Lady Litigious

If you've ever seen the Statue of Liberty in New York versus the replica in Las Vegas, there is one glaring difference that any artist, designer or fabricator is bound to notice: The replica, at right, has a conspicuous and continuous seam running across the breast. Lady Liberty's torso below

By Emily Engle - Jul 03

Tailor Brands' AI Designs Logos and Doesn't Do a Horrible Job

We've reached a moment in time where everyone is beginning to consider the ways in which AI and robots could take over their jobs in the near future. Luckily, robots don't quite have a knack for human emotion or creativity yet, so for the most part, design jobs are still

By Emily Engle - Jun 28

Shapeways Unveils Customizable 3D Printed Jewelry Line

Shapeways, the 3D printing service and marketplace known for their reliable on-demand printing in a variety of materials, recently announced their first in-house line, Spring & Wonder. The collection features a variety of customizable jewelry that leaves customers in charge of the size, shape and message written on their pieces.

By Emily Engle - Jun 20

Amble Offers a New Type of Sabbatical for Designers that Includes Freelance Work 

The first program offers the chance to stay in a cozy cabin or ranch in Yosemite

Often times during vacations and sabbaticals we feel this compulsive itch to keep working, which is why Amble's business model is so intriguing. The new program is offering designers the chance to lodge in cozy properties otherwise not available to the public, in exchange for the completion of a design

By Emily Engle - May 14

3 Ways Design Professors Are Using Kickstarter to Teach Entrepreneurship

School's out, but many design students are still at work on the crowdfunding campaigns they started in these courses

From design books to one-off products to the occasional full product ecosystem, we constantly find ourselves featuring independent designers that have reached success based on surpassing their Kickstarter or Indiegogo funding goals. In addition to the classic "independent-designer-turned-crowdfunding-success" model, we've also noticed that the platform has made its way to

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 Joel Moskowitz - May 02

Feeling Overwhelmed? Here's a Good System for Getting Things Done

I recently saw an Instagram post by craftsperson @anneofalltrades. In the post Anne expressed her worries about things not getting done, and ongoing difficulties with task completion. Many of her issues are common to anyone running a business, especially one where your labor is an integral part of production. These

By Core Jr - Apr 19

Sponsored Post: Taking Your Business Seriously Without Taking Yourself Too Seriously 

Punk Rock Creative Director Steph Hoff explains what it's like to successfully do your own thing with both personal and corporate projects

From corporate to freelance to side hustle to small, energetic company, Steph Hoff has experienced just about every type of workplace culture through her career. Her innate sense of style and a savvy awareness of street culture give her a unique lens that she uses to filter and focus corporate

By Emily Engle - Apr 17

Book Review Pt. 3—Brutally Honest: No Bullshit Business Strategies to Evolve Your Creative Business

This excerpt is all about writing the perfect cover letter. Tomorrow is the last day to get your hands on a copy!

We're publishing a third and final excerpt from Brutally Honest: No Bullshit Business Strategies to Evolve Your Creative Business, the "tell it like it is" career advice book specifically catered to designers. Written by Emily Cohen, the book compiles honest business insights and strategies the seasoned design consultant has been

By Emily Engle - Apr 05

Book Review Pt. 2—Brutally Honest: No Bullshit Business Strategies to Evolve Your Creative Business

This excerpt is all about relationship curation strategies

Our readers, our staff and Kickstarter enthusiasts alike have shown a huge interest in seasoned design consultant Emily Cohen's new book, Brutally Honest: No Bullshit Business Strategies to Evolve Your Creative Business. So, we decided to publish a second excerpt in advance of the full release. Brutally Honest still has

By Emily Engle - Apr 04

A Closer Look at MoMA Wholesale's Ongoing Product Design Collaboration with SVA PoD

To celebrate the work of participating SVA PoD students, be sure to check out the window displays they designed for MoMA Design Store starting tomorrow night

The MoMA Design Store has been a retail destination for design lovers for years, but many people don't realize that MoMA Store has their own wholesale product brand developed in-house to accompany many of the classic design items they have available. Ambi Chopsticks and HoldersAround five or so years

By Rain Noe - Apr 02

Design Entrepreneurs: Here's How to Design, Build and Price Out a Shoe Store in 20 Days

Ben Uyeda of HomeMade Modern shows you the whole process and breaks down the dollar amounts

This will be super-helpful to those of you who have design/build skills and want to see dollar breakdowns for a project. Ben Uyeda of HomeMade Modern was asked to create a shoestore in an impossibly short deadline. He not only shows you every step of the process, from design to

By Core Jr - Mar 30

Sponsored Post: Dori Pankowska on the Realities of Using Overseas Manufacturers to Produce Small Product Runs

The mind behind the blog Dori the Giant shares her experiences and gives advice to designers searching for the right manufacturer

While studying photography in college, 27-year-old designer Dori Pankowska decided to start her own blog, Dori the Giant, where she would feature the many small side project she worked on outside of class. Her professors as well as creative directors that discovered her blog took note of her uniquely creative mind and advised her to consider advertising as an alternative to the specialized field of photography. Pankowska eventually took their advice and has now been in advertising for two years

By Emily Engle - Mar 27

Nicholas Baker Describes Sketching in Virtual Reality and Life After Design School

"I've never been one to shy away from something just because it's scary or hard. If it fails, it fails."

When he's not designing products for an array of freelance clients, industrial designer Nicholas Baker spends time engaging his 42K+ Instagram followers through daily posts and a weekly live sketching show called Late Nite Nick. On top of maintaining a growing social media presence, Baker recently launched bend mirror

By Emily Engle - Mar 20

Book Review—Brutally Honest: No Bullshit Business Strategies to Evolve Your Creative Business

Whip your creative business into shape

In order to push forward in our careers, we often need to expose ourselves to the cold, hard truth and push past common excuses that do nothing but keep our development stagnant. Too often we settle for general career advice that beats around the bush because a) honest advice is

By Rain Noe - Mar 15

Starchitect Richard Meier Accused of Pattern of Sexual Misconduct, Takes Leave of Absence

#MeToo reaches the design world

Richard Meier is one of the world's most celebrated architects, a member of the original New York Five whose works include the Getty Center, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art and the Paley Center, among countless others. The Pritzker Prize winner, now 83, has been so prolific that he built

By Core Jr - Mar 14

Sponsored Post: Few's Arlton Lowry on How to Work Remotely and Manage People in Other Time Zones

Hint: It's all about setting boundaries for yourself and using the right online tools

Some businesses start on a whim after days spent dreading a desk job, while others grow organically based on a successful side project. The latter is the case with Few, a design agency co-founded by Arlton Lowry and David Hudson. The pair met in Little Rock, Arkansas during Made by Few, a design conference run by Lowry at the time. After deciding to work on multiple projects together, turning their efforts into a company a couple years later was only natural. Today, Few's client list includes ev

By Rain Noe - Mar 05

Designers: Here's How to Find Out if the 2018 Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Will Affect You

A bunch of materials, products and tools are about to become less expensive. Will it benefit you or set you back?

The upcoming steel tariffs are all over the news, but very few are talking about the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill Act of 2018. If you're a designer, design entrepreneur or work in a shop, here's how the MTBA 2018 could affect you. First off let's explain what it is. Miscellaneous Tariff

By 3D Hubs - Mar 01

Sponsored Post: Minimize the Cost of CNC Parts (9 Proven Design Tips)

Use these tips to optimize your design and reduce the cost of CNC parts by more than 50%

Whether you are looking to create a single prototype or you are ready for large-scale production, cutting manufacturing costs is often the main priority when it comes to CNC machining. Luckily, your decisions as the designer can greatly affect the final pricing. By following the Design for Machinability tips of this article, you can manufacture parts that are optimized to minimize costs and still comply with your design requirements.

By Core Jr - Feb 27

Sponsored Post: Micki Krimmel on Finding Factories, Breaking into New Industries and Using Crowdfunding as a Marketing Tool

The founder of Superfit Hero discusses figuring out unfamiliar design processes and tapping into markets you're already part of

After coming to the frustrating realization that plus sized women weren't receiving fair treatment in the athletic wear market, Micki Krimmel set out to change state of the industry with her size inclusive performance wear line, Superfit Hero. Krimmel combined her knowledge gathered from founding previous startups with her passion for fitness—specifically roller derby—to plan Superfit Hero's development in the same spirit as a tech company.

By Core Jr - Feb 16

Sponsored Post: Jon Wye on Digging for Information, Designing Custom Machinery and Managing Freelancers

The leather goods manufacturer keeps it real with advice on starting a business as a designer

For the past 14 years, Jon Wye's eponymous company has been designing and manufacturing belts, dog collars and other leather goods in Washington DC. Often featuring original artwork from freelance artists around the country, his eye-catching products attract an international audience of people who live life on the quirkier side. Wye's rise to success wasn't easy, though. The self-taught businessman spent years developing sales and marketing skills to match his design ones, all while living at ho

By Rain Noe - Feb 08

An Interview with Michael DiTullo, Part 2: How He Overcame the Setbacks All Designers Face

"My exit plan is death."

In Part 1 of this interview, we followed Michael DiTullo's career path from unruly student to principal of his own firm. It wasn't an easy-breezy path; you don't rise to the position of Design Director at 30, then Chief Design Officer before your 40s, as DiTullo did, without encountering difficulties

By Rain Noe - Feb 06

An Interview with Michael DiTullo, Part 1: How He Designed His Way to Success

"Sometimes young students talk to me about making a five-year plan, and I would say 'F*ck that….'"

It was turning out to be a bad Valentine's Day for Michael DiTullo, rebellious design student. Having pissed off the wrong people one too many times, he learned he was being kicked out of the Industrial Design department at RISD. Furious, he confronted the department head and told him he

By Rain Noe - Jan 29

Ikea Founder Ingvar Kamprad Passes Away

Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, passed away over the weekend at his home in Sweden. There may be no single human being who has had more of an effect on the furniture of planet Earth than Kamprad. He founded Ikea in 1943 at the age of 17, reportedly

By Rain Noe - Jan 25

Scam Warning: Don't Buy Anything From Design Brand Perch

The lights are on, but no one's home

Trashiness factor aside, I regularly read the New York tabloids for local awareness, particularly on matters of crime. It's rare that I see the word "design" in a headline, but this week it's popped up, for lurid reasons. Apparently there's an NYC-based office goods design start-up called Perch. The copy

By Rain Noe - Dec 12, 2017

Jonathan Ive is Back in Charge of the Design Teams at Apple

Good news: Jonathan Ive, who was famously promoted to Chief Design Officer of Apple two years ago, is officially overseeing the design teams again. As CDO Ive's attention was spread onto the design of Apple's "spaceship" campus, with Alan Dye and Richard Howarth taking over the hardware and software design

By Core Jr - Nov 16, 2017

What Designers Can Learn from Brand Specialists to Scale a Successful Business of Their Own

The WGSN Futures conference demonstrated both what designers can learn from marketers and important skills they already have

Last week's WGSN Futures conference, an event founded by the trend research agency, focused on the future of retail, branding and marketing in a time now dubbed the "Retail Apocalypse." With thousands of brick and mortar stores shutting down last year, it's clear traditional retail needs a bit of rebranding

By Emily Engle - Nov 15, 2017

Kickstarter Announces Drip: A New Online Platform Where You Can Kickstart Yourself

Subscribe to and follow creative individuals you believe in

Kickstarter has been all about inventive products and the stories behind them since day one. By now, we all know the basics of how the crowdfunding platform works—designer thinks of groundbreaking idea but needs funding, designer creates Kickstarter campaign to raise awareness and funding, designer either earns enough funding or