This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new playlist of face-melting great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. So whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or flying through a CAD model, consider these tracks as…
With a childhood that consisted of designing and building his own toys from the age of five or six, to a career history that spans the fields of animation, graphic design, interior design, carpenter, scenic painting, welding, writing and acting, hosting Mythbusters seems like a natural evolutionary step for the show’s Adam Savage. Savage, along…
Don your favorite bath robe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. This week we saw everything from a Daniel Simon-designed, fully-functional TRON Lightcycle, a much-needed update to the popular Paper iPad app, a look behind the process of a soon-to-be-launched-on-Kickstarter design project and more… So lay back, relax and…
With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw everything from an entirely new way of thinking about our smartphones, a new offering from Sony that wants to fuse light and…
As if the release of Onshape back in March of this year didn’t spin the CAD world into a frenzy, things are only about to get a little more crazy up in here. Yesterday, Autodesk slipped a little message onto their Fusion 360 homepage to notify users (both new and existing) that they are rolling…
Time for another round of apps that cover 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 (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list…
Unless you’re a professional iPad sketcher – chances are you like to use a little bit of assistance with your (lack of) drawing abilities. For this, it’s hard to deny that Paper by FiftyThree is without a doubt the best in its category; some people have even admitted to being swayed into purchasing an iPad…
This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new playlist of face-melting great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. So whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or flying through a CAD model, consider these tracks as…
Don your favorite bath robe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. This week we saw everything from how a science fiction LEGO fanatic is creating working versions of vintage LEGO sci-fi pieces, a perspective on “why it might seem like everybody is out to steal your ideas”, a new…
When it comes to machining, there’s more than a handful of tricks for getting jaw-dropping results with some clever problem solving; after all, that’s sort of what the skill is about in the first place. But when it comes to using the various tools in a machinist’s workshop for creating complete mind-bending objects, that’s when…
For London-based kirigami paper artist and designer director Marc Hagan-Guirey (AKA Paper Dandy), a turning point came in March of 2012 when – after picking up the kirigami craft – he decided to leave his job as Head of Design at a Soho-based advertising agency to concentrate on paper engineering full-time, starting with his first…
With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw everything from a crazy composite wood technology bike to a new iPhone app that can make a t-shirt out of seemingly any…
Time for another round of apps that cover 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 (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list…
This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new playlist of face-melting great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. So whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or flying through a CAD model, consider these tracks as…
Creating life-sized objects out of LEGOs is nothing new – but creating life-sized LEGO objects that actually work? Now we’re talking. Love Hulten, a Swedish designer, craftsman and innovator who focuses on fusing modern technology with traditional artisan craft, has recently created the Brix System; a collection of hand crafted modular devices that are custom…
Does anyone not like LEGOs? After watching the trailer for the upcoming documentary on the iconic toy, it would appear that you’d be hard-pressed to find somebody who doesn’t. The documentary, which is simply titled A LEGO Brickumentary, is the first of its kind in that it tracks literally everything LEGO – ranging from the…
Don your favorite bath robe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. This week we saw everything from how to turn your $399 Apple Watch into a “$17,000 Apple Watch” using some sneaky DIY techniques, the release of a new Maker-centric social network, how a small shop crafts surfboards in…
Between the latest developments behind the HoloLens to the announcement of their Internet Explorer replacement product, it’s already been a busy couple of days for Microsoft at their annual Build Developer Conference, which runs from April 29th through May 1st in San Francisco. Of course, the conference wouldn’t be complete without some updates on Windows…
Not too long ago, graduating from an Ivy League School was among one of the best ways to ensure a high-paying and dignified career. Now, a new study has shown that despite what history may have taught us, the new high-paying jobs are demanding skills that aren’t offered at Ivy League schools at all -…
With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw everything from a new custom BMW motorcycle from Ken’s Factory in Japan, a wild modular smartphone case, a $20 3D Printed DSLR…
Time for another round of apps that cover 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 (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list…
Thanks to the internet’s interest in never-ending, looping cat fails and Russian parkour accidents, the GIF file format has surged in popularity over the past few years – however, when put into context for a sales or marketing tool, the GIF can be a powerful communicative medium for explaining a process. Among others who have…
This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new playlist of face-melting great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. So whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or flying through a CAD model, consider these tracks as…
Considered to be one of the most iconic designs from architect and designer Buckminster Fuller, the Dymaxion #1 is one of three cars that were designed by the late designer in the 1930s. Although the zeppelin-esque design of the car is well-loved and has been etched-in to nearly every industrial design history book or class…
Of all of the Apple Watch orders that were received or picked up last Friday, only a few were likely to have been the gold Apple Watch Edition model, which ranges in price from $10,000 to $17,000. Depending on how well the gold model sells (which many analysts think it will), it has been rumored…
In an age of touchscreen devices and virtual reality headsets, it’s not too often when contemporary design looks back towards the Ice Age for inspiration – however London-based artist and designer Kentaro Yamada is anything but conventional. Previously, Yamada has created everything from an upside-down frozen aluminum pyramid to a software-generated sound installation that translates…
Don your favorite bath robe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. This week we saw everything from an update to Lenovo’s ThinkStation, an interview with Dieter Rams’ protégé, the exhaustive hand-assembly process behind the Porsche 918 Spyder and more… So lay back, relax and take a load off while…
Looking at incredible structures such as the Sphinx in Egypt or the genius of Leonardo Da Vinci’s self propelled cart, it’s even more impressive when you think about the rudimentary resources that the designers had hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Today, we have highly sophisticated tools like CAD software and rapid prototyping to…
With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw everything from a collection of flying cars, an R2-D2-inspired airplane, how to make a droid for just $20, the coolest nature video…
It’s hard to deny that when it comes to speeding up your workflow in any given software, keyboard shortcuts (AKA Hot Keys) are far and away among the most efficient ways of shaving time off of your digital tasks. Whether you’re gathering some inspiration images in Photoshop, starting some sketches in Sketchbook Pro, Developing a…
Time for another round of apps that cover 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 (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list…
It’s no secret that Quirky has had a significant impact on disrupting the way that things get made. Similar to Local Motors, their crowdsourced design business structure allows ideas to be tested within their community before being refined and sent into production – with royalties coming back to the original inventor. While many experienced designers…
As far as desk toys and “random stuff to keep around for inspiration” goes, everybody has their own tastes and preferences. While some may prefer bright and colorful vinyl toys such as those from Kidrobot on their tidy desktop, others may prefer to keep more DIY-inspired mini-projects strewn about their dusty workshop. For those looking…
This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new playlist of face-melting great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. So whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or flying through a CAD model, consider these tracks as…
It’s difficult to have a conversation about the history of industrial design and not bring up Braun during at least some point in the conversation. The German company – along with legendary industrial designer Dieter Rams – have time and time again been called the single biggest influence on Apple products thanks in no small…
Don your favorite bath robe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. This week we saw everything from “smart Silly Putty” to architecture-inspired building blocks and a brand that’s using the “vacuum forming aesthetic” for their soft goods designs and more… So lay back, relax and take a load off…
With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw everything from what is quite possibly the best-designed drone ever to an update to MakerBot’s PrintShop app, a modular + stackable garden…
Time for another round of apps that cover 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 (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list…
Aside from great museums, pizza slices and crazy food-hybrids, NYC has always had something else going for it: it’s very 3D print-friendly. Among other things, NYC’s SoHo shopping district was the first to see a MakerBot Retail Store – a first of its kind – and nearby Brooklyn is the home to many hardware startups…
This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new playlist of face-melting great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. So whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or flying through a CAD model, consider these tracks as…
Don your favorite bath robe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. This week we saw everything from an update on what 3D printing mastermind Joshua Harker has been up to, how IDEO is leveraging a 91-year old product designer on their team, a peek behind the scenes of an…
It’s been a wild ride for Carbon3D and their CLIP technology ever since CEO and co-founder Joseph DeSimone presented the technology live on stage during his TED2015 presentation in Vancouver on March 16th. “What we think of as 3D printing,” said DeSimone, “…is really just 2D printing over and over…slowly.” If the live Carbon3D CLIP…
In what was certainly one of the product design events of the year, DEVELOP3D Live went down last month in Warwick, England and featured a host of talks and workshops centered around CAD and the near-future of product design. Among others who were on-hand to talk about their latest technologies included SolidWorks CEO Gian Paolo…
With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw everything from quirky take on the upcoming Apple Watch, a much-needed update to the OS X Photos app, a 3D printed jet-powered…
Ever since they hit the block with their Pixologic partnership in late January earlier this year, Luxion has showed no signs of slowing down the KeyShot awesome train for 2015. The KeyShot for ZBrush + Bridge was – and still is – one of the company’s biggest announcements to date and effectively opened up their…
In an industry dominated by the young, 91yr old Barbara Beskind is breaking the glass age-ceiling, and now works as a designer for IDEO, where according to the Wall Street Journal, Beskind walks with her custom modified ski poles from the train station to the Palo Alto-based IDEO offices. There, she shares her wealth of…
Time for another round of apps that cover 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 (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list…
This week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist brings an entirely new playlist of face-melting great music to help propel you through those laborious, tedious design tasks for the next few days. So whether you find yourself inking markers until they’re dry, grinding material through a bandsaw or flying through a CAD model, consider these tracks as…
Don your favorite bath robe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. This week we saw everything from a behind the scenes look inside the mind of eccentric inventor Dominic Wilcox, a new Adobe app that will help you create design presentations on the fly, Motorola’s hilarious take on the…
With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw everything from what Quirky’s been up to with their smart product developments, a new way to think about portable light, an update…