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By Rain Noe - Feb 04, 2015
The Pon: A U.S.-Made Combination Pushpin/Paper Clip
Last year we saw the Pinclip, a combination paper clip/thumbtack, which allows you to affix papers to a corkboard without actually puncturing the paper. Alas, it was Japanese-market only. But now Chicago-based designer Mark Weiser has designed something similar (and got an earlier start than the Japanese product, see further
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By Rain Noe - Jan 02, 2015
The Stephens Brothers' Wooden Ambici Watches
Today ends, successfully, the Kickstarter run of the Plug & Feather watches we wrote about earlier, which have unique stone faces. Now another watch made from an elemental material--wood--is also nearing the end of its crowdfunding run. And interestingly enough, these latter watches were designed by two teenage brothers.Reed and...
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By Rain Noe - Dec 24, 2014
This Watch (is Made of) Rocks
When watchmaking startup Plug & Feather says their timepieces are "built from timeless materials," they mean it. The faces are made out of stone, milled down to an unthinkable 1mm. The company reckons they're the first to pull this off, and they're not using run-of-the-mill rocks either: They offer (pictured...
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By Rain Noe - Dec 19, 2014
Only Three Days Left to Kickstart "Design for People"!
Scott Stowell's Design for People was one of our Gift Guide picks this year, by way of Etsy Creative Director Randy Hunt. But we've gotta plug it again because it's in danger of not happening.To refresh your memory, Design for People is a book by Scott Stowell, founder of design...
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By Rain Noe - Dec 10, 2014
The Last Mechanical Pencil You'll Ever Buy?
"I noticed I was using packs and packs of mechanical pencils at work as disposable items," writes Andrew Sanderson, who spent six years as an aircraft propulsion technician and a decade as a gas turbine engineer. He subsequently switched to product design, with the goal of creating a mechanical pencil...
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By Sam Dunne - Dec 01, 2014
HashKey: Ironic Accessory Makes a Stand Against Qwerty Orthodoxy
On first glimpse of the HashKey—perhaps as a result of Kickstarter overexposure—my heart sank under the weight of my tumbling faith in humanity and fear for its future. Fortunately, on closer inspection, I found sweet salvation in the realization this was, of course, a product conceived with an eyebrow raised...
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By Rain Noe - Nov 27, 2014
Smart Luggage Re-Design That Addresses Modern-Day Needs: The Trunkster
One could argue that luggage design hasn't kept pace with modern-day travel needs. Thus entrepreneurs Gaston Blanchet and Jesse Potash, both of whom travel a lot and were dissatisfied with current luggage offerings, set out to produce a contemporary, aluminum-and-polycarbonate carry-on and full-sized suitcase called the Trunkster line. Here's how...
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By Kat Bauman - Nov 17, 2014
BIY Bikes? Build Your Own Bicycle With Bamboobee
Forgive me, actual bike mechanics of the world, for what I am about to share. But if you, the common bike fancier, have ever thought bamboo bikes looked really cool, or read about their enjoyable ride qualities, or dreamed of someday making your own, check this out. Bamboobee is a...
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By Ray Hu - Nov 07, 2014
The Bruvelo Makes Coffee Smarter
Premium coffee is kind of a thing these days, thanks largely to the likes of Stumptown and Blue Bottle, and the nuances of brewing a perfect cup hits a sweet spot of quasi-gastronomical experimentation... not least because it's something that many of us do on a daily basis. Now, as...
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By Ray Hu - Nov 04, 2014
With the Successful Funding of the iBox Nano, 3D Printers Just Got a Lot Smaller and Cheaper
Surely some of you remember the toy called Shrinky Dinks, the polystyrene toy that allows users to turn pieces of plastic into smaller pieces of plastic. (According to Wikipedia, 90's alt-rockers Sugar Ray were originally known as 'Shrinky Dinx' until Milton Bradley threatened a lawsuit—more nostalgia than you asked for...
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By Rain Noe - Nov 03, 2014
The Undress Allows Women to Change Clothes in Public, Without Exposing Themselves
A professional photographer whom I know told me he'd never own any car that wasn't a van. When shooting guerilla-style on the streets of NYC, he explained, it's crucial to have a mobile changing room for the models to switch outfits in.The desire to not be seen naked in public...
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By Jeri Dansky - Oct 30, 2014
Designers of Organizing Products Look to Kickstarter
What kind of organizing products get funded (or try to get funded) on Kickstarter? Having written about the HYVE system, I wondered what else I'd find there. When I went looking, I found designers offering a wide range of interesting stuff.Anyone who carries keys and a smart phone in the...
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By Ray Hu - Oct 30, 2014
Sitpack and Relax on This Pocketable, Pop-Out Chair-in-a-Tube
Hot on the heel-plate-attachment-points of Noonee's "Chairless Chair," the team at Mono+Mono has launched the "Sitpack" on Kickstarter. The Copenhagen-based design consultancy has developed what they're calling "the world's most compact, foldable resting device," and they're looking to bring the pocketable monopod to market via a crowdfunding campaign. Designed in...
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By Rain Noe - Oct 29, 2014
The Wolffepack: A Backpack Designed to Flip Around to the Front!
Messenger bags make you sore on one side. I can just about guarantee those of you that wear them have one shoulder that is constantly stiffer than the other. Backpacks provide more even pressure, but then you lose the key utility of a messenger bag: The ability to quickly slide...
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By Ray Hu - Oct 28, 2014
Picture This: Billed as Pandora for Photos, Fireside Offers a Smarter Digital Frame
Just launched on Kickstarter, Fireside is bicoastal startup that promises to revolutionize digital photography—not in how we create images and videos but how we share and enjoy them for posterity."1,000 songs in your pocket."So goes the tagline for the very first iPod, released 13 years ago (nearly to the day),...
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By Rain Noe - Oct 22, 2014
A Kickstarted Hoverboard! With a Catch
With a lot of folks buying the Back to the Future 2 hoverboard prank earlier this year, it's no surprise that a purportedly real hoverboard just got funded on Kickstarter. (Or so we assume—at press time it was at $234,708 of a $250,000 goal, with 53 days left to pledge.)...
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By Rain Noe - Oct 21, 2014
Inventables Launches 3D Carving Machine on Kickstarter, Reaches Funding Target in Minutes!
These are exciting times for those looking to get into digital fabrication, as the technology really is starting to trickle down. With MakerBot the go-to for desktop 3D printing and ShopBot cornering the shop-based prototyping and production market, Inventables reckons there's room for something in-between: A machine it's calling Carvey,...
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By Ray Hu - Oct 17, 2014
This Week in Aerial Imagery: Top-Down Typography and Killer Whalewatching
We've long been enamored with the Eames' Powers of Ten short film, which is as much an introduction to aerial photography as it is to the math behind astronomy and biology. Just as everyone now takes beautiful images (and the retina...
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By Kat Bauman - Oct 16, 2014
Kickstart Radiotopia for Kickass Storytelling Radio
Do you like feeling you're on the right side of history? Do you value the true craft of storytelling (not just designers and advertisers telling you their products tell stories)? Do you love unexpected views into the lives and histories and work of others? Shh. Just click here.The Radiotopia network...
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By Rain Noe - Oct 14, 2014
Will This Successfully-Kickstarted "Air Umbrella" Turn Out to Be the Real Deal for 2015?
Industrial design student Quentin Debaene's Dyson-Powered Invisible Umbrella concept generated strong interest when we showed it to you last year. Created as submission for the James Dyson Award, Debaene estimated that his fabric-less umbrella design, which would blow air so forcefully that falling water would be repelled, could be built...
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By Moa Dickmark - Oct 14, 2014
Communitere - A Nonprofit Organization That Literally Gives Locals the Tools to Empower Themselves
When I write about projects and people that I find interesting, I often wonder "Why the heck don't more people know about these projects/people?" You can say that I see it as my duty to spread the word, to inform people about the things going on out there, and make...
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By Ray Hu - Oct 08, 2014
And Now, an Origami-Based Minimalist Umbrella
TIL, in a 2008 New Yorker article (via Wikipedia of course), that "There are so many people with ideas about umbrellas that the Patent Office has four full-time examiners assessing their claims." Author Susan Orlean continues:One of the problems, according to Ann Headley, the director of rain-product development for Totes...
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By Ray Hu - Oct 01, 2014
What Do You Get When You Cross an Oven Mitt with a Neck Pillow?
Having just spent a week in China, my circadian rhythm is pretty much entirely out of sync at this point. Traveling 12 hours into the future was rougher than it had ever been, and now that I'm back, I expect that my usual sleep deprivation will be further compounded by...
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By Rain Noe - Sep 25, 2014
Aerospace Engineer Designs the Perfect Ice Cream Scoop
If only all industrial designers paid as much attention to ergonomics as this engineer.Michigan-based Michael Chou is a dad who loves ice cream, and has scooped a lot of it out for his kids. Here's the thing: He likes the ice cream when it's frozen solid, not partially melted, and...
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By Kat Bauman - Sep 22, 2014
Seriously? Test Case: Seatylock
Weird Crap On Kickstarter can be a pretty depressing beat, but sometimes the odd and terrible offerings can give us opportunities to reflect, to learn, and to better ourselves. Today I present the case of Seatylock: yet another bike lock/bike seat hybrid. This thing addresses a few common complaints about...
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By Ray Hu - Sep 10, 2014
The Standards Manual: A Veritable Grail of Visual Communication Available for 30 Days via Kickstarter
The new Apple Watch may offer navigation via a paired iPhone's GPS system, but (Maps bugs notwithstanding) wayfinding used to be a skill, especially here in New York City. While the grid of streets and avenues bears a semblance of intuitive legibility, the sinuously criss-crossing subway lines has long been...
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By Rain Noe - Sep 04, 2014
A Vibrating Fork, and an Anti-Vibration Spoon. Which Would You Rather Have Designed?
The phrase "First World problems" was trenchant the first time I heard it. Now five years later, with everyone braying it and hashtagging it as the laziest of punchlines, it irritates me. But I guess it won't go away, and that's partially because of objects like the Hapifork and the...
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By Kat Bauman - Aug 19, 2014
Wave Hello To Minimal Music Posters: Kickstart Your Favorite Waveform Dance Tracks
Second verse, better than the first. Alex Szabo-Haslam made delicate waves last year with elegant printed visualizations of his favorite electronic songs, and he's back at it with an even wider range of artists. The project was born when Szabo-Haslam, a designer with a background in music promotion, had the...
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By Rain Noe - Aug 18, 2014
Brilliant Butter Knife Re-design
From Australia comes this clever re-think of the common butter knife. Sydney-based industrial designers Sacha Pantschenko, Norman Oliveria and Craig Andrews put their heads together and came up with the ButterUp, which adds a row of precisely-shaped holes to the blunt edge of the blade. This enables one to "grate"...
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By Rain Noe - Aug 15, 2014
How a Failed Kickstarter Campaign Returned, Succeeded, and Spawned a Transportation Subculture
Price inflation doesn't usually make a physical noise, but it did in 2008, in Cam Woods' neck of the woods. As gas prices rose to $4.50 a gallon, California-based Woods noticed that less folks were driving and more folks were buzzing around town on mopeds and motorized bikes. "All of...
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By Rain Noe - Aug 12, 2014
Lousy Non-Industrial-Designers Eating Our ID Lunch. To Hell With Your Affordable, Cleverly-Designed Standing Desk
David Yamnitsky and Isabella Tromba are grad students at MIT, with degrees and degrees-to-be in the unchallenging, trifling fields of Cryptography, Math, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Computer Security--or as we ID'ers refer to these fields collectively, Meh. The duo were seeking to purchase standing desks for themselves, but balked...
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By Kat Bauman - Aug 11, 2014
For Ears That Deserve the Best, Kickstart OwnPhones
Do your off-the-shelf earbuds fall out during javelin practice? Did the wings you taped to your bluetooth headset rip off once you started working on the pottery wheel? Do you struggle to find tasteful, elegant earrings to comfortably cram inside your ear canals? Let OwnPhones take the pain away, and...
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By Rain Noe - Aug 07, 2014
The Mininch Tool Pen: What Makes This Design Such a Funding Smash?
When a product design asks for $7,000 on Kickstarter but nets $228,000, it's worthy of study, particularly when the design is not an obvious home run. Any product designer should be asking themselves: What is it that these guys tapped into, in the backers' consciousness, that made it such a...
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