The lasting contribution to society from today’s reality TV shows can be endlessly debated, but if there is one that can do more good than harm, it’s likely the Intel-backed America’s Greatest Makers. The reality competition show, which pits 24 teams of Makers against each other with weekly build challenges leading up to a $1…

Designed to allow devices to be customized for an individual’s own style and functional needs, Google’s Project Ara modular smartphone has been one of the more compelling pieces of hardware kit announced within the past few years. The platform, which allows users to swap out hardware components including high-resolution cameras, loudspeakers, different battery sizes and…

When it comes to starting a side project (or a “project” project), ironing out early ideas and evaluating them ahead of time – rather than just jumping in – can mean the difference between a hugely successful venture or a massive major headache further down the road. Unfortunately, moving productively through this brainstorming process and staying…

As a certified LEGO Master Model Builder at the LEGOLAND California Resort, Robbie McCarthy earns a living doing what most kids (and many adults) could only dream of. According to his job description, McCarthy frequently combines good old-fashioned brick building skills with proprietary software and custom fabrication to manage LEGO projects from creative conception through…

Between video games, spreadsheets, musical instruments, weather forecasts, cameras and more, the amount of life-changing things made possible on our smartphones is made possible thanks to over five decades of developing increasingly powerful – yet smaller – computer chips. Needless to say, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t that long ago when even the…

Going back to the introduction of desktop publishing tools that allowed everyday Joes and Josephines to “design” and print documents with relative ease, the perceived value of professional design services has continued to decline as skills and processes that previously required years of training continue to be simplified and automated for nonprofessional users. Perhaps no…

Whether it exists in the form of Javascript, a music video, or any other bonkers use of everyday objects, the Rube Goldberg machine never fails to keep the fun side of invention alive. More recently, the watchmakers at Seiko created what is sure to be the smallest Rube Goldberg machine ever created using – you…

With a foundation in photography and a degree in Product Design from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Northwestern Switzerland, photographer Fabin Oefner learned early that the creative process – regardless of the medium – is a multi-layered and complex balancing act of multiple factors. Along the way, he also found that his…

As any true LEGO fan will attest to, the real fun of the plastic brick toys exists somewhere in the process of unboxing a model and attaching the final piece. For Porsche fans, the latest release from the toy brick maker will give you 2,704 opportunities to appreciate that process. For their latest LEGO Technic…

Whether your choice of vinyl exists in the 200-gram form or as a tortilla, the magic that makes music play from an analog disc is one of the most impressive engineering feats ever conceived. But how exactly does a turntable convert those modulated spiral grooves into magic melodies? As music writer Ned Lannaman once described,…

With Game of Thrones fans gearing up for the premiere of Season Six this Sunday, the Moleskine marketing team did what anybody with a giant stack of empty sketchbooks would do: they recreated the show’s iconic opening sequence from paper – 7,600 cutouts to be exact. Created to celebrate the release of a ‘Game of Thrones’…

In the age of the iPad and Apple’s revolutionary approach to changing how technology is used in the classroom, it’s easy to forget where it all started: the eMac (or, education Mac). Originally designed as an affordable iMac option for teachers and classrooms, the eMac eventually became available to the masses due to high demand…

Despite more recent efforts to clean up plastic waste in our oceans, a recent prediction by the World Economic Forum forecasted that the total weight of plastics will be larger than the total weight of fish – specifically due to the overall rise of global consumption. But what if at least some of those numbers…

Despite revealing their anticipated new iPhone SE and a smaller iPad Pro at their Keynote last month, the most impressive announcement from Apple came in the form of Liam, an industrial robot designed to tear apart discarded iPhones. Announced onstage by the company’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, Lisa Jackson, Liam is…

Love ’em or just plain prefer something else, there’s a reason why Nike stays at the top of the innovation food chain. Going all the way back to the original concept of making a shoe from a waffle iron, thinking outside the box has been embedded into the brand’s DNA since day one. Like Apple’s…

Forty years ago, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne established Apple to sell the Apple I Personal Computer Kit. Designed and built by Wozniak himself, the first units of the Apple I Personal Computer Kit would go on sale just a few months later for $666.66 ($2,772 today) and effectively put into motion one…

With the recent release of the Oculus Rift, it’s become clear that the age of consumer VR headsets is now upon us and it could only be a matter of time before “plugging in” to a virtual experience is scarily more exciting and immersive than what could be feasible without death or injury in real…

When it went off the air last month after 15 successful seasons over 13 years, most people thought that hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman were hanging up their MythBusters hats for good. While we may not be seeing Savage and Hyneman personally behind the MythBusters blast shield anytime soon, the franchise itself is being…

While you were tucking into Easter Breakfast or carefully organizing the Cadbury eggs in your basket this past Sunday, Henning Pedersen of Norway was delivering easter eggs via parachute with a hen mounted to a drone. It is 2016 after all. Pedersen, whose Norway-based company MAKEADRONE sells easy-to-build drone kits for kids, teachers and parents,…

Ten years ago, Brooklyn filmmaker Gary Hustwit began filming what he described as a “geeky side project”: a documentary about typography and graphic design called Helvetica. What started as a side project soon turned into a mini-phenomenon that became the foundation for two other documentaries: Objectified, which focused on the human relationship with manufactured objects,…

It’s been a little over a year since Microsoft first introduced the HoloLens, and while we’re still waiting for it to become a polished consumer product, the company is gearing up to release the $3,000 Developer Edition of the device – which could be shipping as early as this week. While we’re still yet to…

In what is likely going to be a more commonplace business strategy for some hardware developers, Valve, creators of the popular Steam gaming platform, have released the mechanical CAD geometry for their popular $49.99 Steam Controller. Under Creative Commons licensing, the geometry for all of the externally visible parts is free to download in a…

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve likely seen a lifetime’s worth of ‘Maker’ videos since the movement took off as a choice of narrative for both independent filmmakers and marketing teams alike nearly a half-decade ago. Unsurprisingly, the movement has been met with a fair share of parodies over the past few years – but…

Writing this, while listening to the Xscape album… The late Michael Jackson’s songs have been adapted in every way possible. From rock bands covering his classic tunes to school marching bands offering a medley of his hits, the King of Pop’s music lives on in various forms.

Hanging out with the world’s most famous bands including Metallica, Coldplay, The Grateful Dead and The Rolling Stones might sound like a fantasy for most, but for Ross Garfield (AKA “The Drum Doctor”), it’s just a part of everyday life. Since 1981, the drum specialist has been making house calls and “tour calls” to fix…

Apple’s Jonathan Ive has a lot of notable achievements under his belt, but suffering through the Sacha Baron Cohen treatment has never been one of them – until now. Baron Cohen – who you may know as the mastermind behind such characters as Ali G, Borat and Bruno – is currently promoting his latest film,…

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a bevy of “Maker Videos” that document how a traditional craftsman works and the philosophy behind his or her work. In contrast, there’s been a growing parallel interest in the strange fascination of destroying manufactured objects, too. But despite all of the iPhones dropped off of parking garages,…

It was exactly a month ago when Mattel and Autodesk teamed up to introduce the $300 Thingmaker 3D Printer; an updated take on the toy company’s original household “toy” manufacturing device of the same name from the 1960s. Not surprisingly, other toymakers want to get in on the “affordable” digital fabrication revolution, too. Hasbro – a…

A team of Harvard researchers have recently designed a new self-actuated material that is tunable for different architectures – or in other words, a material that can flatpack a design and pop it back into its 3D form when needed. The thin-walled three-dimensional structures – which can withstand the weight of an elephant when folded flat…

Although ready-to-assemble furniture first emerged in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the majority of flatpack furniture as we know it didn’t come until later when Gillis Lundgren, a Swedish draughtsman, wanted to design a table that he could fit inside of his car. Soon after, Lundgren had created a ready-to-assemble table that he presented…

Used widely during World War II, the legendary Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was a four-engine heavy bomber used for strategic bombing and was beloved for its ability to sustain devastating battle damage and bringing crews back safely. Today, for $9,500, airplane fanatics can own one of three original unused propeller blades from the B-17 that…

Like most other New York City businesses that have been handed down through generations, The Gramercy Typewriter Company has been keeping tradition alive year after year despite the continual threats of technology. Founded in 1932 by current owner Paul Schweitzer’s father, the shop is currently being transitioned over to Paul’s own son Jason after 84…

Exvacator. Excavator. Mycrotocle. Motorcycle. Chaty. Yacht. When playing Scrabble, or even Words with Friends for that matter, the act of untangling anagrams is half the fun. But what if these brain-twisting anagrams existed as real world objects? JVG, a Madrid-based CGI studio, recently asked themselves that question as part of a design and rendering exploration…

Colin Furze has already established himself up there among the craziest YouTubers, but the insane garage inventor always seems to have something even crazier to share with us. Earlier this week, the UK plumber-turned YouTube sensation managed to turn one of the simplest of things – a tea kettle – into something worthy of multiple…

Along with Spencer Nugent, industrial designer and concept artists Scott Robertson has a special place at the top of our favorite design process educators list. Long before YouTube allowed educators to upload their tutorial videos, Robertson published a handful of design sketching DVDs through The Gnomon Workshop – DVDs that became so popular, they were difficult…

Despite having hundreds – if not, thousands – of significant and innovative changes happen underneath the hood over the past five decades, the distinctive silhouette of the Porsche 911 has largely remained the same. Regardless, the teardrop-shaped 911 still sits at the top of the list for car aficionados and noobs alike for its timeless…

For those who grew up in the 1960s, making toys took on a quite literal sense, thanks in no small part to toy manufacturer Mattel. The company, which had only just introduced Barbie and would later introduce Hot Wheels, managed to bring the same manufacturing methods used for mass manufactured toys into living rooms around…

For decades, DIY and skate culture have gone hand-in-hand across countless mediums. Whether it’s creating a custom skate deck design, a layout for a backyard skate ramp, a skate video, or even a t-shirt brand, the skateboard community has always kept their creative energy sharpened to a T. Aiming to keep this energy alive and…

Whether he’s preparing for the zombie apocalypse with his Slingshot Zombiehammer with Skull Ejector or devising new ways to split Oreo Creme with his Oreo Separation Pump Gun, Jorg Sprave of The Slingshot Channel never seems to be out of ideas when it comes to DIY weaponry. Could his latest creation be his most crazy…

Although we tend to stick to hardware development and design process news here on SolidSmack, we’ve been known to stretch our creative muscles a bit into other creative categories – because, why not? As suckers for documentations of any given creative process, we couldn’t help but ogle over the lastest Designed on Surface series release from…

Known for his many design sketching videos over the years ranging from basic perspective and rendering techniques to strategies for developing ideas quickly, industrial designer Spencer Nugent has long been heralded as a savior in an industry that puts sketching skills on such a high pedestal. But nearly just as important as having a row…

Discovery has a new way to experience all that happens in this world. DiscoveryVR covers everything from puppy dog sporting events to blowing things up–they avoid the combination of the two for obvious reasons.

Historically, within the first week of any iPhone release, those in search of YouTube fame and riches have resorted to hurling their newly-acquired pocket computers towards the ground to perform various forms of “drop tests” (see: here, here, here, and here). Although the phones can be replaced for $50 under an AppleCare plan, the tests…

It was just last week when we saw the “How to Draw a Lightsaber” video from ID Sketching and Sketch-a-Day founder Spencer Nugent. With the upcoming release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Nugent has been feeling the Star Wars fever and has released not one but TWO more videos that both teach us the…

Inspired by a phenomenon called emergence, a process whereby larger entities, patterns, and regularities arise through interactions among smaller or simpler entities that themselves do not exhibit such properties, artist Thomas Medicus recently turned his attention to creating a hand painted anamorphic sculpture that he calls the “Emergence Lab”. “On each side of the cube…

Having been a heavy user of industrial-grade 3D printing since 2008, Jay Leno had since added an industrial 3D scanner and even a Dimension metal 3D printer from Stratasys to his personal collection for restoring cars and creating one-of-a-kind parts. Needless to say, the guy – along with his expert team – knows a thing…

With tens of billions of LEGO bricks made each year, it’s no surprise that there are nearly 4,200 different elements in the LEGO range with a variety of different colors and decorations – a number that brings the total number of possible LEGO brick combinations to nearly 10,000. Inspired to make sense of at least…

Although it may not have the field of view that many were originally hoping for, Microsoft’s HoloLens is still no less of an amazing tool on the horizon for many involved in hardware development. Earlier this year, SolidSmack reported on ten reasons why the HoloLens could change product design and the way that consumers interact…

In the history of sci-fi pop culture, only a few objects have ever elevated to ‘legendary’ status. Of course, the hoverboard from Back to the Future comes to mind – not to mention the Nike Air Mag shoes worn by Marty McFly while cruising on the board. But although it may not be technologically possible yet,…

Climate change is a hot topic right now, and there’s no denying that bottled water is wasteful and global temperatures are shifting. One startup decided to do something about it. Meet Ooho!, an edible water ‘bottle’ created by Skipping Rocks Lab. Skipping Rocks Lab was started through the European Institute of Innovation & Technology’s Climate…