How do you deal with organizational excess? Clutter, in all of its various forms, is a problem—meetings, emails, interdepartmental complexity. This article talks about it, of course, and describes how some are dealing with it. “Clutter is taking a toll on both morale and productivity. Teresa Amabile of Harvard Business School studied the daily routines…

There’s a man who does all of his design work from the French Hotel Cafe in Berkeley, California. His name is Kenneth Smythe. His designs are loaded with symbloism, very high-end, completely open-source and created for a random sequencing production system. If I wanted to describe his work in a way that would make you…

This article, yeah, it’s all about web design and even more, about frameworks used in web/app design and even more about destroying old notions. It’s interesting though. Out of articles like this, I get a lot of inspiration–and see a lot of application–for product design and engineering, both in product and software. “There’s an inherent…

So your 4 year old drew on the wall. You’re less shocked that it’s permanent marker and more shocked that he managed to outfit your raspberry pi with two motors and a pen to cover the living room wall in a perfect remake of Van Gogh’s Blossoming Almond Tree. Could happen. And, he would have…

The tips of ears twitched as the ground trembled and rolled. Folds of colored stone approached as if breathing days of old. And it was for, from the lungs of dust and dirt an amalgamate creature formed, fenced with sand and slivered bands, swiftly sliding, deftly slicing, into these links. Jake Parker – So much…

Mechanical creature. Those are the words you usually include in such phrases as, “Do my bidding, mechanical creature!” Or, “Touch me and you’ll face the wrath of my mechanical creature!” It’s also the answer to the age-old question, “What can we build that will totally awe geeks and scare the spit out of thier children?”…

To good to simply list in the Smackdown… A summer demo by ASD made for Euskal Encounter 22 (2014). Code: Konstantinos “Navis” Pataridis Music: Sotiris “aMUSiC” Varotsis & Fotis “Leviathan” Panetsos Hand Model and Photography: Giorgos “Ch3” Cherouvim Graphics: Nikos “Amoivikos” Batalas https://vimeo.com/101814775 Download the PC Demo at Pouet.net

Good stuff on ‘stuff’ and what to do about it from Paul Graham, all the way back in 2007… “What I didn’t understand was that the value of some new acquisition wasn’t the difference between its retail price and what I paid for it. It was the value I derived from it. Stuff is an…

You’ve trained your body to withstand two hour meetings, chatty co-workers and guzzling a Slurpee in five seconds flat–THE BURN. Now you’re anxious to sharpen your SolidWorks Simulation knowledge. You could poke around the interface, use the wizard when nobody is looking or you could get some proper instruction on the ins, outs, ups, downs…

I started with Aldus Freehand in the 80’s and remember switching to Adobe Illustrator in college. Cool to hear the story… Watch the Illustrator story unfold, from its beginning as Adobe’s first software product, to its role in the digital publishing revolution, to becoming an essential tool for designers worldwide. Interviews include cofounder John Warnock,…

The lenticular chasm of shifting light made the fur around their teeth jump even closer. There were waves of them. Chirping as the foraged upon the bodies. But wait, these were not bodies at all. The crunches were the distinct sound of cabbage being devoured, devoured a mass of bunnies, possessed by these links. Cuba…

Carl on Carol… “[The] first time she wanted to make me a Vice President I hid from her for, like, a week because I didn’t want to be Vice President and I knew it was all downhill from there. And so, I hid for a week until she sent the thugs to kneecap me.” Read…

Imagine working on a project, modeling and simulating the design, in the very environment. A 100% dimensionally accurate environment that you shot with your mobile device. It’s an ability we’ve talked about here before, considered the effect on product development and honestly, thought would be here much sooner. We’ve scanned parts, reference geometry and rooms…

Some love it, some abhor it. This breaks it down so you too can have a controversial opinion… At WhatIsDesignThinking.org

Let’s say you’ve pinched off the last sip of your 8th ginger brew, your bladder is full and you need to 3D print a part that looks like a part from your mother’s, 2nd cousin’s custom-made prosthetic. You’ll probably have to model that sucker up yourself, but maybe, just maybe, it has been modeled and uploaded somewhere else…

There’s so much awesome that goes into the making of movie props, and there’s no lack of drama either. From the 1979 film Alien, Strange Shapes recounts the making of the head that would drip acid and strike fear into Ripley and crew. “I always like to have these big long heads for the monster,”…

Side to side, once was all, and in the burrow it went. The clitter-clatter, putt and hull, were all the noises sent, through skin and fur, as if it heard what came from up behind, the sifting dirt and what unearthed these links for all mankind. Neil Maccormack – There’s more than meets the eye…

Well, well, well. We had LOADS of feedback on the new SolidSmack site design we launched last month. Some liked it. Some hated it. And some wanted to see more cats. There’s no way we’re showing more cats… at least, not after the one above–dang that thing’s cute, with little angry Psy screaming at him…

This is, as is stated, a collection of car faces–You know, the front bits–by Min Seung Song, a UX designer with over eight years experience in the mobile UX industry. He is interested in convergence between mobile technology and cars. You can submit your own faces too. See more at Faces of Cars

“Take a look around: everyone is multitasking. We’re doing more than we’ve ever done, attempting to fill every interstitial zone with more work. Every downtown scene is the same: heads tilted downward, faces lost in glowing screens, technology turning people into zombies.”

It reached deep, past the wharf, wrapping around bottle and bracken extending ever deeper into the Fog Gardens of Lern. More tendrils extended off of it as it passed, and more from those. They detached and began to play violin, harpsichord and washboard, setting the stage for a a light show no one yet has…

What totally looks like the lair of a master race of bees after they’ve modernized and gained the ability to manufacture plastics? Your loft after you install HYVE. HYVE is a fresh new product from Herbst Produkt that has our OCD kicked into overdrive. I’ve seen modular storage and modular organization before, but I’ve got…

A tall, lanky figure pulled dirt and mountain toward him with each step. Black straps and lanyards whipping the air around with the black shudder of atmospheric sound reaching ever closer. Closer with a drip of fur, a dollop of molasses, repeated thousands of times within a second to form the five. The five who…

It was a hard rain that hit the side of the fence that covered its approach, but it was the color spectrum shooting from betwixt its fur-ridden mandible that woke us. Not only was color escaping its face like water into a drowned cargo hold, carrot tops and cabbage leaves were falling everywhere. It was…

I know, I know. After The Objet 1000 video, there was a hole in your soul that could only be filled by oddly informative, yet disturbing videos delivering the future of 3d printing in oddly informative, yet disturbing ways (emphasis on disturbing). While it lacks the sing-along qualities we desire, this new 3D Systems video…

Sticky, feathery little bundles with a smile. Yet, beneath their fluffy hull, lay a bony balls of stick and brier, shifting with mechanical steams that adjusted their grin and stepped them closer still. Kicking one, sent them all confused, bursting into these links. Danny Gardner – Painterly illustration from car and characters to vehicles and…

Wrapped around the spindle spire, there dripped the water clear, a fear, and a reflection of the trees that grew, yet had not been seen. Sheets flapped above the nest, where the afterburners left a faint stain of heat. Oh, the nest? Yes, the one where these links were hatched. Fred Gambino – A handful…

Often, I think back on the days when the willows bloomed, stretching beneath their branches just before being devoured by a pack of crazed yarggle brothx, I think about skin and how it holds most organs in and how I don’t have any now and how I am able to move about with ease, simply…

After devouring eight pounds of chocolate-covered cranberry granola and configuring/re-configuring 3d printers 892 times, we’ve come to a conclusion. 3d print software makes up 38% of what’s lame about 3d printing. Fortunately, other people feel the same and are less lazy and more computer savvy than we. AstroPrint is wireless 3d printing from your mobile…

Once the details were ironed out, we put on the suits. The grate of the near the base of the ship’s portmast was the only opening we could find. Guarded by Mograithian Spineshifters, we had to time the blast carefully. We set the charges, waited for their shadows, hit the button and let these links…

Look out Stratasys. Look out ‘lil ol’ 3D Systems. Mama Autodesk is coming to hardware town, and bringing a truckload of open-platform 3D printed fury with them. Today, it was confirmed in a blog post that Autodesk is entering the hardware market and will be releasing their first 3D printer. It’s not only a 3D…

I know the SolidSmack readership is filled with software-cranking, Oboe-loving instrument aficionados. And, on such a sunny/cloudy/wintery/summery afternoon as this, there’s nothing that you all like more than to see an intricate making-of video that take seemingly simple parts and shows just how complex a process making them can be. This one, in particular, is…

Do you know what custom manufactured bio-armor suit possibilities there are with 3D printing? Probably a lot. And we’re convinced the only way you can find out is to attend the upcoming Inside 3D Printing event IN KOREA. Forget that you already know everyting there is to know about 3D printing (thanks to SolidSmack… ahem)…

The sieve was its arm, four of them, paws more like, scrapping splinters from the hall floor as it dragged itself toward us. Some would give up as this point. We… well, we had two sacks of pears that would reveal otherwise. Two sacks of pears coated in the fortified extract of these links. Steve…

We’re living in a world of daily product launches. If you’re reading this, you’re likely considering your own or, at the very least, dream of making riches by bringing the ultimate, life-altering product to market. Whether that is done through crowd sourcing, investor sourcing or mother-in-law sourcing, there will always be a point when that…

Each time there was a hiccup, more appeared. It was as if the stomach acids of the Sop Wharfer were capable of producing sop larvae with nothing but a recurring bout of mild indigestion. And the byproduct of the larvae, were millions and millions of these tiny, bubbly links. Nikita Veprikov – Beautiful, every image.…

Well, slap my arm flaps. SolidSmack went and turned 7 on us with hardly a grunt! Yes, it’s true. If you’ve been a loyal SolidSmack reader since the beginning, you’ve aged seven whole years–quite well I might add. As for SolidSmack, we’ve enjoyed having you along, and today we’re celebrating with a makeover to the…

We’re back! This time with a refined set of apps that covers the spectrum of your beloved mobile device, be it iPhone, Android or Windows. The Weekly App Smack is the best of design and productivity apps for the busy professional and this week we have a list sure to make you more efficient.

Cap chewers raise your hands! Does your BIC pen cap look like the aftermath of a five year shrapnel-testing frenzy after one day of use? The plastic… IT TASTES SO GOOD. Well, you can toss the whole pen for a fresh cap or flick that gnarled mess into your coworkers salad and slap on a…

Tilling always sent the clouds to wrapping, wrapping round his head, the plow, the farm, raising the earth and gobbling it in the streams of electrical energy tumbling through the air. The till, they called him, not for this power, but for the ability to, within seconds, produce these links. Sergey Zabelin – Massive scenes…

If you’re ok with dropping the “cool factor” that goes along with smoke rising from around your face, sounding like a 200 year old truck-driver on a respirator and smelling of burnt carcinogens, then the Ploom modelTwo may be just the right nicotine absorption alternative for you. Ploom recently won the coveted Red Dot Design…

Sure, at the right angle it looks like the backend was cleaned off by a semi trailer truck barreling down the road, but the reinvigorated Morgan 3 Wheeler is the three-wheeled car that three-wheeled, leather-wearing man-dreams are made of. Don’t doubt yourself if the Morgan 3 Wheeler rings a bell. The company has been kicking…

Pans and pans, stacks and stands of them. The old shopkeeper smiling out from their tops had a new hat. A red one, seven feet tall covered in pockets and hands with flutes and pot scrubbers, all preparing for these links. Simon Stalenhag – New work from Simon. Small bots, salvage yards and urban settings…

Can you make a robot do your bidding by the mere movement of your hands? The answer is yes. Can you make a robot use a motion controller to control itself? While your brain capillaries burst considering that, check out the nifty integration between the Leap Motion Controller and LEGO Mindstorm EV3 posted by the…

A long smile and cantankerous sneer sent the chill of an afternoon storm through the room. Hardly standing but tiptoeing deftly across each board, between snores it seemed, avoiding the cracks as not to trigger these links. Rebecca Monk – Elegant illustration with some that reveal much more with simple motion of an object, a…

“Dear Machinist friend, Guess what? You know that program I told you about after all that whining about, “There’s no integrated CAM solution for Autodesk Inventor! Whah hahah!!” Well, I know they taunted you with the announcement last September. Now, it is actually here. I know, I know, I accidentally swallowed some cutting oil as…

In the office these days, there’s a lack of drama. Drama that could be taken to awesome new levels with the right amount of hand gestures, teeth gritting and intense looks of determination behind the glow of a 30″ HD monitor. 3Gear Systems is bringing all that in multiple ways today, introducing impressive new gesture…

I’m sure you’ve sat at a business lunch–one that isn’t going so well–with the scene quickly reimagined as you screaming, “Tell Jabba…” and firing a blaster beneath the table to take our your would be assailant. (Yes, Han shot FIRST.) In December, Han Solo’s blaster from Star Wars was auctioned off to an anonymous buyer.…

What’s the rhino doing in the soap bottle? You would have asked it, yet stranger still was its size. A wee rhino. In a soap bottle. Sudsing about. And it occurs to you, that the muffled melody you hear is coming from that place, a rhino in a bottle with these links to pass the…

Modla is a small 3D printing design studio that creates incredibly ornate, complex and detailed 3d printed art pieces for brands, architects, designers, artists and more. They launched just over a year ago and have already had product launches with Nike, completed an array of 3d printed architecture projects and designed all the signage for…