Despite being one of the most iconic plastic toys of all time, the first LEGO toys were, in fact, crafted from wood. The company, founded by master carpenter Ole Kirk Kristiansen in 1932, initially crafted the toys out of wood but switched over to plastic when wood supplies became scarce in the aftermath of WWII.…

For the serious LEGO junkies out there, the LEGO IDEAS community is a one-stop shop for all things plastic brick. From message boards to activity ideas, the platform—which is officially hosted by LEGO—encourages members to share their creations and compete for prizes with build competitions. It’s also where master builders can upload proposals for new…

While exploded views can be traced all the way back to the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, it wasn’t until the manufacturing boom of the mid-twentieth century where the term “Exploded View Drawing” became an industry standard for engineering and manufacturing professionals. Today, fascination with exploded views has crossed over into the mainstream as these…

In a world-first breakthrough, Google claims its quantum computer carried out a specific calculation that is beyond the practical capabilities of regular, ‘classical’ machines. In comparison, the same calculation that the team used as a testing metric would take the most advanced ‘classical’ supercomputer 10,000 years to complete, the company estimates. The findings were revealed…

Built to meet the needs of the full design process in a wide range of industries including consumer goods, consumer electronics, automotive, and even educational settings, the new Stratasys J850 3D printer from Stratasys puts a focus on both speed and quality—including full-color PANTONE® color validation and multi-material capabilities via a PolyJet system. Claiming to…

Vacuum forming is oftentimes a critical factor for many package designers during their prototyping stage when exploring manufacturing methods. And just like the physical product it houses, package designers employ prototyping processes for a variety of packaging types to ensure that their design helps unify the full customer experience—or at least, properly fit the finished…

While extremely versatile for a wide range of applications, there’s no denying that poorly-disposed PET plastics are affecting our ocean systems. To help counteract their contribution, Coca-Cola committed to manufacturing all of their bottles with at least 50% recycled plastics by the year 2030. So far, it looks like they’re on track. This month the…

These days, Apple can do just about anything with any of their iPhone cameras and turn it into in ad—be it amateur photographs on a billboard or entire video ad campaigns created under the direction of celebrity photographers. But their latest might be their most fascinating iPhone ad campaign to date. Tapping into the ASMR…

Hold onto your Swedish meatballs and lingonberry jam—the marketing team at IKEA is at it again. And no, they didn’t create self-assembling furniture…yet. If you’re a fan of the GRÖNLID, the LIDHULT, or the SÖDERHAMN sofas, designing your next setup can now be done sans CAD via your trusty laptop keyboard. Yes—the same keyboard you…

The news centered around Apple design icon Jony Ive departing the Cupertino-based tech giant to form a new design studio with fellow industrial designer Marc Newson has hit the mainstream. While it makes sense for somebody to want to shift gears after nearly three decades with the same company, we now have further insight into…

Get that stretch out of your system with this week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist. It’s fashioned up, ready to make you pull your shoulder blades back and knock out another week of meaningful work while you bob your head to the beat. Whether you’re in the shop milling aluminum, sketching the latest product prototypes or…

As North America’s most influential additive manufacturing event, Rapid + TCT 2019 exists on its own playing field when it comes to heavy-hitting announcements, power lunches, impactful keynotes, and all-around industry influence. Held this year at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan during May 20-23, over 400 3D technology providers alone will make up the…

The Raspberry Pi credit-card sized computer can’t do everything — but boy can it sure do a lot. Whether you spring for the full-sized Model B+ to create a custom 3D printed smart home camera, or the compact Zero to create a frickin’ homebrew pocketable smartphone, there’s no denying that the affordable boards are one of…

Just over a year ago, SolidSmack reported that Astropad creators Astro HQ had successfully funded their latest project — Luna Display — on Kickstarter, having raised over $645,000 to bring the project to life. The (minimal) hardware and accompanying app claimed to seamlessly turn any iPad into a second display. Well, now it’s here; we…

It was only back on August 23rd when the master 3D rendering virtuosos at Luxion teased us with a drool-worthy highlight reel capturing what’s to come with the much-anticipated KeyShot 8. And tease us they did—with stunning rendering work featuring everybody from Peter Gill and Esben Oxholm to Dries Vervoort: https://youtu.be/Y6CPCm3kdlU Well, the time is…

It’s no secret that commercial 3D printing has been taking giant technological leaps in the past few years—but bringing the price per part down has been a significant technological barrier for just about every industrial 3D printer manufacturer. With their recently-announced Metal Jet commercial 3D printing platform, HP aims to take what they’ve learned from…

When it was released earlier this year, the Nintendo Labo platform — a modern cardboard construction set extension for the Nintendo Switch portable video game platform—made a bigger splash than anybody could have predicted. While the Nintendo Switch has proven to be popular with gamers of all ages, a modular cardboard construction set seemed like…

From his tribute to the Commodore PET 2001 to a visual synthesizer for building fractal patterns, Swedish designer Love Hultén is a master at combining age-old wood crafting techniques with modern(ish) tech. Inspired by his passions for both traditional craftsmanship and modern technology, the Gothenburg-based designer is capable of commanding thousands of dollars for each…

From Hollywood movies to a plethora of apps, the appeal of STEM skills in the mainstream has never been greater. And when it comes to mainstream, few toys could ever top the semi-controversial Barbie doll—first introduced in 1959. While some argue that the blonde, plastic doll conveyed an unrealistic body image to girls, the latest…

While designers and engineers may associate developing products with blood sweat and tears, Oki Sato, founder of acclaimed Japanese design firm Nendo, found a way to celebrate the design process in the form of a simple and sweet children’s book—with a cup as its main character. Not Just a Cup tells the story of a…

We are just now entering summer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s too early to start thinking about getting outfitted with winter gear—especially if it means getting in early on a Kickstarter product. Developed by Ireland-based Rotation Design across two winters and tested in the harsh weather conditions in Iceland, the TUSK multi-functional snow shovel…

He’s at it again… We’ve seen the wild range of garage invention hijinks that YouTuber Colin Furze has gotten into—including a working Jet-powered bicycle and a homemade hoverbike—so it comes with little surprise that 5-year-old “Little Furze” would eventually come knocking on dad’s workshop door with his own requests. “Dad, can you make me a…

As modern video games continue to break out of their mold and become a new medium for immersive storytelling, so too does the need for more accessible—and considered—hardware designs for a growing population of gamers. While we’ve seen a number of brilliant one-off solutions from hardware modders including Ben Heck, whose various one-handed PS4 and…

With over 14 million vinyl LPs sold in the United States alone in 2017, it’s no wonder that some artists and hardware manufacturers are putting their lossy MP3 files on the backburner to take a closer look at physical media—including cassette tapes— all over again. But for some extreme audiophiles, nothing beats going straight to…

While the mission behind Kickstarter is great for “small guy” entrepreneurs with a good idea and enough chutzpah to launch it into the world via the internet, the ending result isn’t always so great for some project backers. Although the company doesn’t report an official number (nor would they), one only needs to do a…

While the marketplace is flooded with design books of all shapes and sizes, it’s only every so often that a ‘Holy Grail” industrial design book pops up. The ambitious Industrial Design in the Modern Age—out this month from Rizzoli—is one of them. Told through more than 4,000 selected industrial design objects from the Kravis Design…

As Avengers: Infinity War makes its way towards the box office-shattering $2 billion global earnings milestone, it comes as little surprise that the superhero movie has inspired a small legion of creators to don their maker capes and create their renditions of the iron-clad superhero troop. Among others is the SolidSmack favorite wacky garage inventor…

We’ve seen just how much potential there is for AR/VR headsets in the design and engineering world—whether it be modeling in the context of the real world or assisting assembly line workers. That said, we’re still on the cusp of knowing just how significant that shift can be. But when Apple gets involved—there’s usually a…

Nobody likes walking on the pavement during a hot summer day to discover they’ve just come across—and stepped upon—somebody’s soft discarded bubble gum. Aside from the embarrassment, scrapping the discarded sugar-chew is no easy task. But what if said bubble or chewing gum could be scraped from the streets and converted into an actual shoe?…

From the terrifying Terminator-like models from Boston Dynamics to the slightly less terrifying ice cream-serving Yaskawa-kun in Japan, there’s no denying that the age of robot assistance is upon us. That said, just like humans—no two robot models are the same. And what better way to test the dexterity of one robot from another than…

Seamlessly bridging the physical and digital worlds has proved to be a significant challenge for even the world’s most advanced electronic manufacturers. While HP has made considerable strides with their “mixed reality” Sprout platform, the creative market has grown to favor more portable tablets and laptops over full-fledged desktop platforms. With Project Zanzibar, the Microsoft…

Although humans have been throwing disc-shaped objects for centuries, it wasn’t until the 1930s when a couple was offered 25 cents for a cake pan they were throwing back and forth did the idea for the modern frisbee start to take shape. Today, the flexible polypropylene plastic disc is one of the most accessible and…

As reported on SolidSmack back in February, music streaming service Spotify is getting into the hardware game—as evidenced by three job postings for hardware engineers or supply chain managers. “Spotify is on its way to creating its first physical products and setting up an operational organization for manufacturing, supply chain, sales & marketing,” explained the…

Since raising nearly $300K from backers on Kickstarter in 2016, documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit has been hard at work putting the finishing touches on Rams — the first feature documentary film covering the life and philosophies of design icon Dieter Rams. Hustwit, who same may know as the force behind the Helvetica, Objectified, and Urbanized design…

If you’ve been on the fence about finally entering into digital tablet sketching (or notetaking) territory, both Google and Apple revealed some great news for you this week. First up is the all-new $329 9.7-inch iPad. While marketed towards educators as a low(er) cost of entry to bring iPads into the classroom (the education-adjusted cost…

Although IKEA takes the cake for masterminding the ready-to-assemble (or flat-pack) furniture, the concept was initially captured in an 1878 US patent described as “(A) class of furniture which is so constructed that it may be packed and transported in parts, and put together for use by skilled or unskilled persons.” Either way, decades of…

From batch automation to Cloud-based folder sharing, the designer’s digital toolkit has never been as opulent as it is today. But despite sped-up workflows and AI-assisted features, the one thing that will never change is how those designs translate in the physical world. From a CMF (Colors, Materials, & Finishes) standpoint, the newly-launched Swatchbook aims…

As plastic continues to pollute our oceans and overtake our landfills at an all-time high, it’s clear that to reverse the effects of a potentially unlivable planet; it’s up to consumer product manufacturers to take matters into their own hands. Along with Nike and Apple—both of whom are spending billions to try to reverse the…

From production artists to design engineers, few design tools have graced the desktops of design professionals as much as a Wacom tablet. But of all the Wacom tablet models, the Cintiq Pro display tablet takes the cake for the most bells and whistles. Now, the Japanese-based company is kicking things up yet another notch for…

Love it or fear it, machine learning and AI are already here—and here to stay. While the world’s most influential thought leaders each have their own perspective of what that means for our future, taking control of your own understanding of AI is fundamental towards staying ahead of the curve…however that curve unfolds. Like many…

The last we heard from SolidSmack favorite Love Hultèn, the Swedish designer had just announced a retro-inspired portable wood arcade cabinet containing 100 classic 2-player arcade games back in the Fall of 2017. Hultèn, who seamlessly blends traditional wood craftsmanship with modern technology, is already at it again with yet another take on the retro…

While not the preferred CAD tool of choice for every designer and engineer, there’s no denying that Rhino is here to stay. For those that do use it, the NURBS-based modeling program is well-loved for its ability to quickly create free-flowing organic models or rough 3D sketches before moving into a more robust parametric modeling…

The Spotify versus Apple Music streaming audio battle has been heating up for a while now. And while Spotify has a significantly larger user base, Apple—as it always tends to do—is slowly creeping up behind with Apple Music thanks to an ecosystem that puts its hardware and software systems front and center with the Apple…

From face-scanning smartphones to always-listening voice interfaces, we’ve come a long way since using dials and knobs to control the world around us. As a natural side effect, we’ve also created a much larger arena to play with interface design. The Pour Reception radio from interaction designer Tore Knudsen is one such project that aims…

Developed in collaboration with the Aluminum Company of America in 1944 by Wilton C. Dinges, the Emeco 1006 Navy Chair is one of the most iconic chairs in the history of industrial design. Initially designed for the Navy submarines during WWII as a chair that could withstand the rigors of life at sea—including a torpedo…

Like peanut butter and jelly or biscuits and gravy, the combination of YouTube and LEGO is a match made in heaven. For one, it gives block builders an epic platform to socialize and comment on hundreds (if not thousands) of builds. Second, it provides the rest of us a chance to sit back and relax…

Considered by many design professionals to be the holy grail of design tools, the Wacom Cintiq was critical in bringing the natural pen experience to digital workflows over the past decade. Previously offered in both 13.3” and 15.6” sizes, the brand’s untethered Cintiq Pro models enabled professionals to take the Cintiq experience with them on…

With the ability to let users explore and communicate their ideas directly in 3D though AR and VR, few design tools have come along in recent memory that is as unique as Gravity Sketch. Designed to be intuitive in a VR or Mixed Reality workflow before sending over to a more robust CAD program, the…

From paring tomatoes to slicing through thick bread crust, few tools are as valuable in the kitchen as a sharp and reliable knife set. In fact, connecting with a great knife set is so important, it’s one of the few kitchen tools culinary schools require their students to purchase on their own. And while there…

In the history of graphic design, only a few players hold the keys to the golden gates—players responsible for shaping the identities and aesthetic of many of the brands surrounding us today. It would be impossible to have that conversation without bringing up graphic designers Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar of Chermayeff & Geismar (now…