If you’re an avid backpacker, cyclist, runner, or just plain like carrying a plastic reservoir for your hydration needs around with you, chances are you’ve come into contact with that undesirable (and unavoidable) side effect of weird tastes and smells each sip of the way. Regardless if your portable vessel has been plastic or metal,…

Originally founded as Race Productions NV by frame builder and painter Jochim Aerts in 1990, Ridley Bikes have been a market leader in creating high-performance racing bikes for some of the world’s most elite cyclists. Known for their strong alliances with their teams, the Ridley design and development team works closely with riders each season…

“An enigma, paradox, conundrum, problem, mystery, riddle, puzzle, question, perplexity, Bing is out of synonyms!” We’ve all wanted to know…but always get so wrapped up in just enjoying the dang things that we always lose count. This new Kickstarter project aims to solve the mystery once and for all: In 1931, one question arose that…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where sleep management systems can learn when to wake us at the optimal time, a world where smart lighting systems can sync in real-time with films to make a living room part of an immersive film…

Billed as a platform for bike craft, design and innovation, the Oregon Manifest is one of the most exciting annual events in the realm of bicycle design. The event pairs together talented design studios and small bicycle crafters to create their combined vision of what the Urban Bicycle of the Future will look like…and then…

Deciding what to hang on the wall is never an easy choice. Unless you’re an art collector and rotate pieces often, finding that ‘perfect’ photograph or painting can take months if you are finicky about details. If somewhere along the way you’ve been looking for that final touch to make your home office or workshop…

Sleep. Some of us just can’t get enough of it and will spend plenty of money on products to make sure that when we get it in those seemingly small doses….we get the most out of it that we can. Within the last few years, sleep has been looked upon as one of the most…

NEW YORK – Just in time for the world premiere of Sharknado 2: The Second One, Syfy and Philips, the global leader in lighting, today announced the first ever television content-focused immersive lighting experience with the pairing of the Syfy Sync second screen app and the Philips Hue connected lighting system for the home. Fans…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where 3D printed museum replicas allow visitors to interact with valuable art pieces, a world where digital and connected picture frames can allow a user to change art work via a smartphone, how do we find…

Call them the Devo of upcycling…an Illinois music group by the name of Electric Waste Orchestra has been turning old and discarded hardware into new musical instruments. Born out of Makerspace Urbana in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois (135 miles south of Chicago), the group creates fully-functional musical equipment that not only keeps e-waste out of landfills but…

Add this to the list of jaw-droppingly awesome things that a student did for a school project. For his final project at the Royal Academy of Art, Nigerian-American industrial designer Oluwaseyi Sosanya has created a 3D weaving machine that can theoretically redefine what it means to produce soft goods and clothing. The patent-pending 3D Weaver…

While the argument over barefoot running is still up in the air, one thing is for certain: Nike’s marketing department has done a stellar job of marketing the ‘minimalist’ running shoe with everything from pushing shoe designer Mark Miner into the design rockstar spotlight to a portfolio of memorable ads including the infamous ‘Flyswatter’ ad…

Perhaps inspired by MakerBot’s recent addition of Sesame Street-branded content into their Thingiverse 3D model-sharing platform, Shapeways and Hasbro have teamed up to offer branded My Little Pony content to those willing to fork up to $100 for one of the bright and colorful accessories. Operating under the site SuperFanArt (on a side note…you couldn’t…

Inspired by the desire to buy a quality, well-designed luxury watch but frustrated by the current state of the bloated luxury watch industry, Leonard & Church founder Jeff Leung set out to establish a new watch company that cuts out the unnecessary middlemen including wholesalers, importers and retailers. This ‘eliminate the supply chain’ business model…

Built over two years by working late nights and weekends, Ugmonk’s story is truly an inspiration for those looking to get their side projects out into the world. Started by Jeff Sheldon one month after graduating college and soon after starting a full-time design job, the Ugmonk brand was born out of blood, sweat and…

You may remember Dutch designer Jolan Van der Wiel’s Gravity Stool when it hit the internets a couple years ago. His unique take on the centuries-old seating design used the simple concept of magnets to sculpt the stool upwards rather than turning, blow molding, injection molding, or any other fabrication method seen thus far. The…

Touted as a ‘zero break-in’ glove, Nike is setting the bar high for themselves with a product that has a culture of ‘break-in enthusiasts’ known for hacking the break-in process in order to create a deeper bucket for those pop flies. As baseball becomes increasingly quicker and more athletic (like all other sports), innovation is…

Made from acrylic, f,l,o,w,e,r,s is embedded with real flowers that were hand-selected and dried, Terayama meticulously spaced out the flowers in 1cm intervals using a pair of tweezers to give the effect of ‘blossoming’. “If the flowers in the paddy were spaced in equal intervals I could lie down in them and measure my height.”…

If you live in New York City, chances are you’ve come across at least one billboard featuring either the Quirky Aros or the beautiful mug of Quirky’s outspoken CEO Ben Kaufman. The open source product design and development company based in NYC has been pushing their new Aros AC Unit hard this summer as New…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where umbrellas can act as personal mobile weather stations, a world where virtual windscreens can easily add augmented reality to automobiles…how do we find the next ‘big thing’? MakerGalaxy is a show that explores the crossroads…

When it comes to rendering a 3D model, there are generally two directions one could go in: a drag and drop solution or a fine-tuned custom solution with more dials and knobs than a 747 cockpit. Full-stack programs such as MODO offer the latter for those who are particular about every last measurement of fresnel,…

Still one of the most popular watches for surfers, the Nixon Supertide features pre-programmed tide information for over 270 beaches through the year 2023, a 48 hour future tide, a heat timer, as well as the more common alarm and light functions for when it’s time to ditch the waves for some grub. The custom…

Ahh…few things in life are as satisfying as playing Tetris and watching those bricks fit sooo nicely together. Game enthusiast Marc Kerger loves the game so much, that in honor of the game’s 30th anniversary this past June 6th he created a wearable (and playable!) Tetris shirt. Consisting of 128 LEDs powered by an Arduino…

Open up the pockets or bag of your nearest design or engineer buddy and you’re bound to find at least a couple of common items: a sketchbook, a pen, a multi-tool or knife, and if you’re lucky…an embarrassing driver’s license photo that you can run and make copies of to post around the office. In…

We’ve seen quite the gamut of keyboards within the past decade ranging from iterations on the same clickity-clack behemoths of yesteryear to the slim, clean and wireless Bluetooth offerings that can enable a user to type from across the room. More recently, we’ve been seeing various attempts at omitting the keyboard altogether due to an…

In the video age, getting behind the design thinking and production process of many great thinkers has never been easier, and online file transfer service WeTransfer has added even more great videos to this movement with the launch of their Creative Class video series. Aimed at illustrating how some of the most influential people in…

Brooklyn-based jewelry maker Carolyn A’Hearn is known for one-of-a-kind unique pieces that border somewhere on the line between classic and sci-fi. Her process for creating the pieces is almost just as interesting (if not more interesting) than the final pieces themselves. Using scraps of metal ranging from the size of a nail all the way…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where 15-year-olds are filing patents for 3D printer technologies, a world where virtual reality can let users explore their real-time reality in a third-person view…how do we find the next ‘big thing’? Maker Galaxy is a…

Yesterday we shared filmmaker Keith Skretch’s Waves of Grain video on our all-new SolidSmack Daily Smack Reading list. In Waves of Grain, Skretch shaves away blocks of wood layer-by-layer to reveal a sort of reverse-growth cycle of various grain patterns and imperfections. But what would happen if you did the same time-lapse process with other…

We’ve seen Coca-Cola’s efforts to be a more sustainable company range from various material usage changes to even designing an upcycling kit for discarded plastic bottles. While any effort is a step forward, perhaps they should take a look at designer Ryan Harc’s concept for a new Coca-Cola can: it uses 3D texture rather than…

In case you haven’t been keeping up with your Finnish lately, Karuselli translates to ‘merry-go-round’…which is fitting for a spinning chair that brings child-like joy to the adults who have the pleasure of sitting in the Karuselli chair. Designed by Finnish architect and furniture designer Yrjö Kukkapuro and released in 1964, the timeless piece is…

Developing a narrative to craft around a product design can be one of the more difficult pieces of the design process. When I was in school preparing my final year industrial design project presentation, my teacher at the time drew what looked like a cross-section of ocean waves arriving to shore on the dry-erase board.…

There’s a lot you can do with a 3 hour chunk of your day. For filmmaker Keith Skretch, that meant planing down a block of wood one layer at a time to create this mesmerizing stop-motion video. As each layer gets shredded to saw dust, each of the imperfections become their own little abstract dance:…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where audio devices can turn dance moves into beats, a world where connected ambient lighting can bring the weather outdoors inside…how do we find the next ‘big thing’? MakerGalaxy is a show that explores the crossroads…

We’re pretty sure that if you were to open up your nearest dictionary and open it up to the word ‘Insanity’, Colin Furze’s name would be somewhere in there. The plumber, stuntman, inventor, and filmmaker from Stamford, Lincolnshire, England is known for his wild and downright impressive inventions ranging from ‘The World’s Fastest Pram’ (complete…

Since launching the Glass Explorer program in April of 2013, Google has seen both an onslaught of support for the technology as well as an intense backlash from establishments ranging from restaurants and bars to cinemas and even public spaces that have ‘No Google Glass’ signs displayed prominently. In an effort to remove the stigma…

With a jury of twenty-four established designers who have ‘been there and done that’, taking home one of the 176 trophies in the annual IDSA IDEA Awards is certainly no easy feat. Between Fifty-Three’s stylus and new start up PillPack’s innovative take on the prescription medication user experience (designed in partnership with IDEO), the IDEA…

Hold the Cheetos and fruit snacks! The average child throws away an estimated 55 lbs of food a year from school lunches…and we’re pretty sure that the majority of that is damaged food (smashed sandwiches?) or food that isn’t being served in its optimum state (who wants cold tomato soup?). Needless to say, fresh food…

Oftentimes with upcycling, the best executions haven’t always been in repurposing wasted objects in their current physical state but rather, using the base material to create a new material to work with. We’ve seen this with ‘useless’ bike tubes that have been sliced and sewn together to create a rubber sheet for bags—or even something…

Founded in Sheffield, England in 1902 (also the birthplace of stainless steel), Ernest Wright and Sons has been churning out some of the best scissors and shears in the world for everybody from professional tailors to barbers and everything in between. Unlike mass-produced offerings such as the iconic Fiskars Orange-Handled Scissors, each pair of blades…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where digital pens will allow design museum visitors to create and share their own product designs, a world where Virtual Reality headsets can be made from cardboard, how do we find the next ‘big thing’? MakerGalaxy…

What happens in the top-secret design lab at Apple’s Cupertino HQ has been a topic of interest for years now. Regardless if you use and appreciate Apple products or are a devoted Dell or Samsung user, it’s hard not to appreciate the contributions to industrial design that Jony Ive and team have cooked up in…

For those of you without access to a fully-stocked workshop (myself included at the moment), we’ll take whatever we can get our hands on that is portable and is capable of scratching that wood working itch. Self-described ‘YouTube-r, woodworker and piano technician’ Jack Houweling of Vancouver-based Jack’s Pianos has a hefty library of wood working…

Aiming to be the ‘One-Stop Shop’ for all your 3D printing needs, iMakr has been met with an enthusiastic response since opening their first store in London in 2013. Since the opening, they have expanded their online store to include everything from an expansive range of 3D printers to fit any budget as well as…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where personal bluetooth environment trackers can sync real-time weather data to a smart phone, a world where motion-tracking heaters can follow a user as they move throughout a building, how do we find the next ‘big…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where smart air conditioners can turn themselves on or off based on your GPS location, a world where 11-year-olds are creating successfully crowdfunded products, how do we find the next ‘big thing’? MakerGalaxy is a show…

Sure, we would all love to have a Giant Solar Death Ray or even a simple Tree Branch Edison Bulb Lamp, but at the end of the day the most effective (and sometimes, challenging) designs are those that make life better for those needing assistance to perform basic tasks. Currently featured amongst their highlighted contest…

Kids these days… Inspired by the need to create a cup for her grandfather who had difficulty holding onto drinking vessels due to his Parkinson’s Disease symptoms, 11-year-old Lily Born of Chicago created a unique cup design that has already surpassed its goal on Kickstarter in less than a week. The three-legged Kangaroo Cup was…

While we rarely see projects that explore materials on an elemental scale, they are among some of our most favorite when it comes to better understanding the crossroad of the natural world and mass manufacturing. Perhaps you may remember London designer Thomas Thwaites’ Toaster Project (free pdf of book here) in 2009 where he tirelessly…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where auto-balance bikes can teach kids how to ride without training wheels, a world where heat signatures can turn any surface into a touchscreen…how do we find the next ‘big thing’? MakerGalaxy is a show that…