When it comes to some of the most simple and effective works of two-dimensional art today, it’s hard to not throw LA-based artist Geoff McFetridge’s name into the circle. The artist, who approaches two-dimensional pieces as “inventions” similar to a designer or engineer, has worked with everybody from the band OK GO to Nike and…

Back when it was announced that Apple had hired Australian industrial designer Marc Newson to join their notoriously tight-knit Industrial Design team, there was plenty of speculation about why Apple had made the decision. Amongst other theories was that Newson and Ive just simply wanted to work together in the same environment, however it is…

Since its inception in March of 2005, Y Combinator has helped guide and launch dozens of successful startups through their innovative support platform consisting of seed money, advice and resources. The company, which is based out of Mountain View, California, is able to supply their financial and industry connection resources in exchange for an average…

As 3D printers become cheaper and more accessible, it was only a matter of time before a 3D printer trickled down into actually being a ‘toy’. After all, this has happened before with other methods of manufacturing including vacuum forming and casting molds, among others. As anybody who has used an FDM 3D printer knows…

For those who prefer starting their ideation sketching sessions on an iPad, there’s a good chance that FiftyThree’s Paper has been tried at least a few times – if it isn’t already the go-to drawing app on their iPad. The freemium app, which features a bundle of stylized drawing tools to aid in the sketching…

For the past couple of years, the engineers at Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects Group (ATAP) have been heavily-focused on their 3D mapping technology in the form of Project Tango. The Android-based phone/tablet platform (which is still currently in prototype stage and available to some developers) is designed to create high-quality and accurate 3D maps…

Since hitting the market in 2012, the Raspberry Pi has been nothing short of a game-changing educational device for hackers, makers, educators, students, engineers and curious designers. The tiny computer – which is priced at just $35 – has helped spawn legions of open source product designs ranging from streaming internet radios and video game…

Last time we checked in with master design sketcher (and even-better sketching instructor) Scott Robertson, he was releasing his second interactive design tutorial book How to Render. The book, which follows the equally-awesome design sketching book How to Draw, features what are quite possibly the most in-depth explanations of how to render sketches ever published.…

As MakerBot announced that they were unrolling new features and products into their expanding ecosystem during CES 2015, one of the biggest gaping holes in their platform was making the entire 3D printing experience more social. Between the legions of new 3D printing enthusiasts to existing user groups and Makerspaces, the social activity has been…

For some (college students?) it’s a necessity, for others (psychopaths?) it’s a hobby. Assembling flat-packed IKEA furniture really isn’t as bad as many make it out to be, but it’s still a chore worthy of purchasing a six-pack of root beer for and putting on a Pixies record in advance. In their new game Höme…

For those who enjoy the brain activity of assembling thousand-plus part models in SolidWorks, this new ‘desk toy’ just might be right up your alley. Set to be unveiled at next month’s Toy Fair in NYC, the LEGO SHIELD Helicarrier is among one of the largest and most sci-fi builds to date with 2,996 elements…

When it comes to CAD software, ZBrush, like many other types of digital sculpting software, can oftentimes be compared to the odd friend in the group that nobody really knows well, but always wants to be better friends with. Most often used by character designers and conceptual artists, the extremely powerful digital ‘clay’ modeler is…

For those that grew up in the 1980s and early 1990s, it’s likely that some of the best weekends-ever consisted of epic Nerf soft-dart Blaster fights and fort-building. Unlike LEGOs, the soft darts didn’t hurt if you stepped on one and the combination of building strategic forts for protection certainly led to at least some…

It was just this week that rumors started circulating about an upcoming Apple-designed stylus to coincide with their also-rumored 12.9 inch professional iPad known for the time being as the iPad Pro. Sadly, iOS users who are looking for a more portable sketching and work experience will have to wait…however Android users who love to…

Although the upcoming Apple Watch will certainly have a few bells and whistles that will turn legions of fanboys into an army of Dick Tracys, it is not the first watch that Apple has ever made…and we’re not counting your iPhone, either. Released in 1995, the first Apple Watch was actually produced as a promotional…

While it’s common for blade marketers to use some form of shark imagery or “SharkSaw” terminology in their otherwise metal-based products, we’ve been yet to see an actual saw blade that really is, in biological makeup, real shark teeth. A team of biologists recently built the Jawzall modified power saw to investigate the cutting power…

Ever since the first iPad came out in 2010, professionals and amateurs alike have been using the touchscreen tablet as a portable digital sketchbook with mixed results. While some professional designers who were already well-versed with creating eye-popping sketches have been able to use the tablet with relative ease, the unpredictable nature of line weights…

Back when it was announced in Fall of 2013, the Martin Jetpack P12 Prototype promised to be the final version of what would unofficially become the world’s first commercially-available jetpack design capable of cutting through the sky a la The Rocketeer. Created by New Zealand-based Martin Aircraft company, the future-inspired designers had previously promised a…

Despite the horror stories of unfulfilled orders and not to mention the thousands of half-inspired ideas, Kickstarter is still an extremely powerful crowdfunding platform for getting product design ideas off the ground…as long as project creators do their homework in advance. According to the company, a majority of their users that back projects are oftentimes…

Since graduating with an architecture degree a few years ago, French product designer Pierre Guibert naturally drifted into product design after working with prototyping materials extensively and being inspired to pursue smaller-scale projects during his time in university. Working primarily with cardboard – including developing a line of handmade cardboard lampshades that he also teaches…

Although we’ve seen and heard a lot about what Autodesk’s Pier 9 workshop is capable of producing, we’ve been yet to see a whole lot of what has actually been done there. If these sculptures from John Edmark, one of Pier 9’s Artists-in-Residence are any indication, it looks like they’re up to a whole lot…

After taking a look at their product design collection, it becomes clear that Azusa Murakami and Alexander Groves of UK-based Studio Swine are just as interested in designing their own manufacturing processes as they are with the final product design results. Among other projects that the design team have worked on include furniture that is…

For anybody who can remember using an original Macintosh computer in the 1980s and early 1990s, few could argue that today’s Apple lineup of computers bares any resemblance to the early computers that helped make Apple a household name. For a group of designers at the German tech blog CURVED, this was just as convincing…

It’s been almost a year since we’ve heard from Greg Mark, founder of MarkForged and creator of the Mark One carbon fiber 3D printer. When we ran into him at SolidWorks World 2014 last year, his 3D printer was the talk of the show and had SolidWorks executives including Gian Paolo Bassi talking about the…

When it comes to transportation design, it used to be that one only needed to attend an exterior design sketching class to notice that the majority of those in attendance were likely car-obsessed males. However, as more women crossover into design and engineering roles that were previously held by their male counterparts, we’re also starting…

As we move into a ‘smart’ era where everything from coffee machines and houseplants are capable of communicating with their human owners, it would make sense to focus the IoT infrastructure on creating products that aren’t just the latest and greatest in technology, but also serve a purpose such as…saving lives? Using their existing IntelliSafe…

As far as animated movies go, The LEGO Movie ranks high on the list for not just simply having a great story, but also its impressive use of CG and the fact that everything – including water, explosions, smoke and landscapes – are actual LEGO bricks. Of course, creating a feature-length film of walking and…

Since unveiling the Strati, their crowdsource-designed 3D printed car, Local Motors has been visiting everybody from MakerFaires to the Today Show and has been open about putting the car, which can be printed in 44 hours, into production later this year. While most would probably expect the Phoenix, Arizona-based company to unveil something on an…

Fresh off the heels of last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2015) in Las Vegas, the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit is in full-swing today and is swapping in-dash computer announcements for supercar unveilings. The first car to take the Detroit audience by storm this morning was one that has been rumored…

Rather than unveiling any new hardware last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2015) in Las Vegas, MakerBot quietly announced a wide array of ecosystem updates to make their platform more useful to a wider variety of users. Considering that their range of existing FDM 3D printer models are still among the most technologically…

As the tech industry patiently the awaits the release of the Apple Watch – and more importantly, how the public responds to it – a rise of quieter smartwatch concepts have been coming out of the woodwork that may give the Cupertino company a sharp jab in the smartwatch gut. With interest surrounding some yet-to-be-released…

Among other product designers who have been adding a modern twist to classic toy designs, Detroit, Michigan-based Matthew Tait of TAIT Design Co. has done an exceptional job of combining DIY interactivity to otherwise perfect wooden toy designs. The designer, who started TAIT Design Co. in 2013, went to school to become a graphic designer…

It’s no secret that Elon Musk is among one of the few functioning futurists that is single-handedly advancing humanity into the future. The SpaceX founder has not only been busy creating a robotic snake that automagically protrudes from a wall to charge an electric car, developing a Mars transporter that is set to be announced…

If you still haven’t managed to remove the ‘Everything is Awesome’ LEGO Movie song from your head, this next bit of awesome news probably isn’t going to help much…unless of course, keeping the song stuck in your head is awesome (it’s awesome). Inspired by his three awesome sons and their desire to create more complex…

Formed in 2008 by a group of friends from New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, Kinfolk Bicycles was born out of the designers’ need to experience a certain type of product that hadn’t been built yet. In their case, it was a well-crafted, handmade bicycle. Combining their experience from a variety of disciplines, the group…

Considered by many to be one of the most important peripherals in a designer or design engineer’s toolkit, Wacom pen displays and tablets have been seeing some rather dramatic improvements within the past couple of years in regards to both more powerful and ergonomic desktop offerings as well as streamlined and self-contained mobile offerings. This…

Ask anybody who has become a speed demon within an app what their secret is and more often than not, an expert-level use of hot keys is likely to be among the more common answers. Whether the user is a graphic designer switching between selection tools in Photoshop or Illustrator, or a design engineer switching…

Without even being a full week into the new year, we’ve already been seeing an avalanche of new product announcements, tech trends and software announcements that will help shape the next year in product design and engineering. Never one to disappoint when it comes to announcements, Luxion announced today that they have released the KeyShot…

Although they’ve been on the market for awhile as a 3D printer manufacturer now, MakerBot has been up to a lot more than just creating glorified hot glue guns that create colorful vases and toys. In addition to their recent partnerships with global brands including Sesame Street, Hello Kitty, Martha Stewart and more recently, Hoover…

Since his famous presentation in front of the Cupertino City Council on June 7th, 2011 (just one day after presenting at the 2011 WWDC), Steve Jobs’ vision of bringing a spaceship-inspired Apple headquarters down to earth has been slowly coming to life. The headquarters, which Jobs wanted to build to house 12,000-13,000 Apple employees under…

When taking a glance at his past projects including the Who’s There Chair, Cargo Containers and Power Lines, it becomes clear that industrial designer Daniel Ballou not only finds joy in solving everyday design problems, but he likes to provide a somewhat humorous experience for the end user as well. His most recent project, Cinder…

When it comes to YouTube stars who want to bless the world with their obscure (but usable!) knowledge, Grant Thompson (AKA The King of Random) ranks up there among the best of them. Initially inspired to produce videos as a way to give back to the tutorial-rich YouTube community, his YouTube channel now includes over…

With a focus on the design of systems and the creation of tools and processes for producing products, Swedish-Chilean designer Anton Alvarez has had his work exhibited internationally at establishments including the Design Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Similar to other designers who have created their own methods of manufacturing, the…

Inspired by the aesthetic of vacuum-formed everyday products, Felix Tai and Jeffrey Leung’s POMCH is one of the more interesting applications of vacuum forming we’ve seen…and is one that a generation of ‘makers’ will almost certainly respond to positively. Having started as an experiment in school, the concept has since launched itself into its own…

Expected to begin shipping in early 2015 at an estimated cost of $5995, Autodesk’s Ember 3D Printer is almost ready to be launched into design studios, workshops, schools and other facilities who are looking to be involved with the software giant’s Spark open platform for 3D printing. Along with the Ember printer, the Spark open…

As if the LEGO Architecture Studio couldn’t get any cooler, a clever hack was unveiled last week that could let designers and architects translate their build objects into 3D data for idea generation and literal rapid prototyping with LEGO models. Although most professional designers and engineers will probably want to spend their time jumping straight…

When NASA emailed a ratchet wrench file to International Space Station commander Barry Wilmore on December 19th, it marked the first time a file could be 3D modeled on earth and sent up to space for manufacturing. While it isn’t the first time an object has been printed in space (there have been over 20…

As convenient as it is for rapid prototyping purposes, 3D printing as a method of final manufacturing can be a bit of eyesore, depending on your tastes. However, when done right and put into context, the use of additive manufacturing to create everyday items can also create some attractive objects that are worthy of a…

When it comes to partnering up with existing brands to enable users to create 3D printable products and accessories within their own homes, MakerBot has been on the forefront of showing us what that future might look like. Between their partnerships with brands such as Sesame Street, Hello Kitty and even Martha Stewart, their MakerBot…

If disassembling an object and having to reassemble it back into its original state is something that makes your knees buckle with nervousness, 9 times out of 10 you’re probably not a watchmaker. Known for their still hands and ability to organize hundreds of tiny pieces, there’s a reason why some watchmakers can earn just…