By Rain Noe - Jul 18

The All In, Leon Laskowski's Marvelously Efficient Task Lamp Design

…makes me wonder: What is the responsibility of an industrial designer?

I have a pair of drafting lamps from Ikea (above) that I use on my sewing machine repair bench. They're based on the classic design and are useful for providing illumination at the unusual angles necessary for working on a machine. At $13 a pop they're economical, and a bit

By Joel Moskowitz - Jul 12

Tools & Craft #100: The Finest Water Fountain in New York City

I'm a big fan of pastrami, and I go to Katz's to get it. Katz's has been on Ludlow Street since 1888, and aside from superb pastrami, and what must be the largest restaurant seating capacity in New York City, they have the single coolest water fountain I have ever

By Emily Engle - Jul 05

Jonathan Trayte Merges Furniture and Food at Friedman Benda

Fruiting Habits is on display through July 27th

Artist Jonathan Trayte's first US solo exhibition, Fruiting Habits recently opened at Friedman Benda, and the included pieces are definitely not for the conventional-minded. Trayte's approach to furniture and lighting design is the combination of his fine art/sculpture background and his training as a chef and foundry metal worker. All

By Emily Engle - Jun 27

Yuma Kano Discusses the Magical Process of "Rust Harvesting" 

The Japanese designer developed a method of transferring rust from metal surfaces to acrylic

When we think of rust, the first thing that comes to mind is "old," as the natural process is an indicator of age for most products and even modes of transportation like motorcycles and boats. Through his experimental materials project Rust Harvest, designer Yuma Kano aims to transform our notion

By Rain Noe - Jun 08

Idiosyncratic Furniture Design: Guess How This Stool is Meant to Be Used

I think carpet is a terrible idea. It seems perfectly formed to trap dirt within the pile, it's a nightmare to clean and it's made out of synthetic fibers. And when I saw this furniture object that incorporated carpet, I wondered what the designer was thinking: Then I saw what

By Rain Noe - Jun 08

Back to the Drawing Board

Benjamin Benais brings back the portable drafting table

When was the last time you heard someone say "Back to the drawing board" as a euphemism for reformulating plans? In this age of digital sketching, having an ergonomically slanted surface for drawing on paper no longer seems desirable, at least to mass manufacturers. But French designer Benjamin Benais still

By Rain Noe - May 14

What's Your Favorite Design for a Portable Task Light?

Here's how I use my expensive Festool Syslite, and what's wrong with it

This is my previous-generation Festool Syslite LED work light. I probably wouldn't have paid for one--the new one runs some $200--but I won this in a raffle six years ago at a JLC Live event in Providence. I use this thing a lot in my shop, to augment

By Rain Noe - May 09

A Desk Designed with a Transparent Top for Crafters

The EZ View Desk aims to make finding things easier

For me, a desk is where the computer lives, and a workbench is a separate piece of furniture on which I make medium-sized, hard-edged objects primarily out of wood. For people producing smaller and softer craft objects, however, the desk and workbench are one and the same. I came across

By Rain Noe - May 08

Unusual Vintage Storage Furniture: Dental Cabinets

Check out the removable trays and swing-out platforms

Last weekend I was asked, if I could build any piece of furniture with no production limitations, what would I build? Every designer posed this type of question probably envisions something futuristic, but I had something different in mind. A very unusual antique piece of storage furniture. Knowledgeable vintage hunters

By Rain Noe - Apr 23

Prototyping an Inexpensive Set of Folding Table Legs Out of Construction Lumber

2x4s, unfancy hinges, screws and little else

In order to maximize free space, the photo studio I run on the side contains almost no furniture. Different crews fill the space with different things, from racks of clothing for a catalog shoot to tons of lighting equipment for a documentary interview. And sometimes they build small sets in

By Rain Noe - Apr 16

How the Eames Lounge Chair is Made

Eamesy does it

This video is unfortunately peppered with MarketingSpeak--in particular you can skip the first two minutes and 30 seconds--but it does provide a great look at how the Eames Lounge Chair is made. We urge you to ignore the poorly-written narration, as they say things like "the manufacturing process hasn't

By Emily Engle - Apr 06

Vitra and Robert Stadler's Typecasting Exhibition Sheds New Light on Iconic, Forgotten and New Vitra Furniture

If your furniture could talk, what would it say about you?

When performing personal necessity-driven tasks like sleeping, eating and sitting, we often neglect to consider what the furniture we use during our most personal activities says about ourselves. The objects we choose to surround ourselves with speak miles about who we are as individuals, but that's easy to forget when

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 Emily Engle - Apr 05

LAYER and kvadrat Announce Shape-Shifting Retail Shelf System Ahead of Salone del Mobile

SHIFT utilizes Really's Solid Textile Board

Today, industrial design studio LAYER, textile manufacturer Kvadrat and circular economy-focused material company Really announced SHIFT, a shape-shifting retail shelf system that will launch at at Salone del Mobile in a couple of weeks. At first glance, SHIFT looks like a basic wall panel, but when you (literally) peel back

By Rain Noe - Mar 20

Free App Lets You Create and Control Your Own LED Display Designs

Artist/engineer Christopher Schardt's LED Lab, as demonstrated with his "Spokes"

Upon walking into Pier 48 for the World's Fair Nano in San Francisco, the first thing you see are these dual spinning wheels: Called "Spokes," the mesmerizing display was created by artist and engineer Christopher Schardt, a longtime Burning Man contributor who has been creating sculptures since 2000. Schardt

By Rain Noe - Mar 08

How to Build Your Own LED Softbox for Product Photography and Video

Don't buy, DIY

Whether you're taking stills or shooting video, in order to get that "liquid light" effect on a smooth surface you need a diffused light source. You could run out and drop several hundred dollars or more on an LED softbox, but here industrial designer Eric Strebel shows you how he

By Rain Noe - Mar 02

Here's What the $31,000 Furniture Set Ordered by Ben Carson Looks Like

When I heard that Ben Carson canceled, after an uproar, the $31,000 furniture order for his offices, I worried that some independent designer/builder got screwed. Previously we looked at the design/build firm that created a new conference table for the White House and they do good work; I'd hate to

By Rain Noe - Mar 01

Design is in the Details: These Two Improvements to a Transforming Furniture Piece Make it Viable

Why I think the Swing is better than the Urbana

Earlier I maligned the Urbana, a dining table that converts into a bookshelf. I criticized the design of the base, the footprint and the overall purpose of it. A company called German Smart Living offers a similar product called the Swing, and the two design details that distinguish it from

By Rain Noe - Feb 27

Unusual Furniture Design: These Super-Beds from China Come Loaded With Accessories

Shockingly, most of them are less than USD $500

I think the hours we spend sleeping are enough time to spend in a single piece of furniture. But for those who disagree, there are these sort of super-bed designs coming out of China. They feature a chaise-longue-style massage unit, storage for books or clothes, a pop-up laptop desk, optional

By Rain Noe - Feb 22

Unique Furniture Design: Tables Featuring Urban Maps Finished with Photoluminescent Resin, Resembling Cities at Nighttime

Maciej Kozerski's bright idea

In an older post we looked at Mike Warren's unusual technique of filling voids in wood with photoluminescent resin to create this striking-looking table: In a different post we highlighted the work of Lake Art, a family business that produces laser-cut maps: Independently of these, Poland-based Maciej Kozerski has combined

By Rain Noe - Feb 19

Gala Systems' Clever Spiralift Design Turns Columns Flat to Create Disappearing Auditorium Seating

Auditorium seating might not sound like a glamorous subcategory of furniture design, but when it's done right, it really stands out. Previously the neatest system we'd ever seen was the Genya system, designed by Dante Bonuccelli and produced by Italian manufacturer Lamm. Another nifty system is Ziba's Jumpseat Auditorium Seating,

By Rain Noe - Feb 07

This Paint Can Store and Give Off Light for 12 Hours!

What are your ideas for practical applications?

Remember Stuart Semple? He's the British artist who started making and selling that ultra-black paint after artist Anish Kapoor tried to have it all to himself. Now Semple has created that paint's opposite: LIT, which is made out of "the most powerful light emitting pigment on the planet." This stuff

By Rain Noe - Feb 05

Mitch Peacock's Fold-Flat Lap Desk Design

…with integrated pen/pencil storage tube

In Part 2 of our recent interview, Chris Schwarz mentioned the importance of not letting a machine's limitations dictate your designs. Moving forward, I want to start showing you some examples of modern, functional items designed to be built by handwork. Australia-based YouTuber, craftsman and instructor Mitch Peacock came up

By Rain Noe - Feb 02

Yea or Nay: Are These "Space-Saving" Transforming Furniture Designs Valid, or Do They Miss the Point?

Here are two pieces of furniture that transform, and that don't make any sense to me. First up the Twofold: Okay, so it's supposed to be a wall shelf that can turn into a desk. But as you can see, it's not deep enough to hold a laptop unless you

By Emily Engle - Feb 01

Steelcase's VP of Design on Designing a Carbon Fiber Alternative in a Startup Environment

James Ludwig discusses the unique design process behind new office chair SILQ

Steelcase recently announced SILQ, an office chair inspired by the sleekness of aerospace designs and the high-performance of Paralympic prosthetic legs. While the chair itself is beautiful and the inspiration is clear in the final result, SILQ's uniqueness lies in its revolt against the corporate design process, stagnant work days

By Rain Noe - Jan 30

Hilarious Live-Action Re-enactment of Pixar's Opening Credit Scene

Plus the actual design history of the Angelpoise Lamp

Here's a chap named Nils Solana doing his best to recreate Pixar's famous pre-credit scene: "I thank all the people who have made the success of this intro possible," Solana writes (translated from his native Catalan). "Anyone who needs a good intro, contact me." And just so you come away