There are few things capable of sending one flying off the badassery scale, but setting land speed records on a motorcycle is certainly one of those things. When he broke not one but 76 land speed records on a motorcycle between 1929 and 1937, Ernst Henne effectively earned himself enough badassery to last into the…
With most flat-pack furniture, material and structural integrity are often sacrificed for lower costs to the consumer and less of a headache for the retailer to ship, store and deliver. While cheaper, this furniture is also much more susceptible to breaking and thus, needs to be replaced more often. Well, it appears that Italian industrial…
Audi is known for their sleek, high-end cars as status and virility indicator for the young wealthy. Buut, instead of bolstering the image of those who uncomfortable in a tight cardigan, Audi is tossing their hat into the space race. At the North American International Auto Show, the company revealed its Audi Lunar quattro –…
Prepare to drool. Meet the UMC-038 Ducati Scrambler “MARIN” – an 800cc bike that is more lightweight than a 125cc Vespa. It was created to celebrate the Scrambler’s original trellis frame and is an impressive 85lbs lighter than the production Ducati Scrambler. It is also one of hottest Ducati’s we’ve seen in years.
Football is about playing hard and playing fast, but it also involves a lot of safety risks. Movies like Concussion bring up issues about how many players suffer from brain trauma from the game. How can we improve the players’ safety without affecting their game? (My father stopped watching the game due to the disregard…
From the resurgence of movie franchises based on comic book characters to the growing trend of vinyl record sales and hi-fi audio, the demand for bringing back the past has never looked (or sounded) as good as it does today. For Fuseproject founder and designer Yves Béhar, this meant bringing back one of the most…
Pennsylvania based Cabot Gun has designed and fabricated a pair of 1911 pistols made out of a 35kg (77 lb) chunk of the Gibeon meteorite. Called the “Big Bang Pistol Set,” they will be chambered in 45 ACP and come in a special display case. Cabot, known as the “Rolls Royce of 1911’s,” has stated…
When you’re barreling down that singletrack and decide to wrap yourself around a half-rotted pine, the first thing that runs through your head may be a branch with a frightened chipmunk stuck to it. The second thing will undoubtedly be finding your multi-tool to fix the bent wheel/pedal/derailleur. The company that wants to put the…
Duffy London, a furniture company started by designer Christopher Duffy, provides furniture that you’re guaranteed not to find at IKEA. Their products can be considered modern art and then take it a step further by using unique materials and objects for truly unique designs.
While some people stuff anything and everything into their wallet, others prefer the minimalist money-clip approach with that ever-so-modern feel of ‘less is more’. Those who fall into the latter camp will want to feast their eyes on the KKMC MICRO, a truly minimalist wallet manufactured from solid, aircraft-grade aluminum.
It’s hard to practice good posture when we’re slumped over our computers and smartphones all day. I think the condition is called Tech-neck–we all do it. Whether it’s for work or for play, slouching over, staring at these screens is not all that great for us.
It’s not easy to take on the task of improving upon one of the world’s most simple and well-loved toy building block designs – particularly if that building block is LEGO. For Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, however, creating their modernist “Japanese LEGO” wasn’t just about building a new toy; it was also about communicating an…
This past weekend I took apart a massive 2×4 workbench–it covered the entire side of a garage. It was large enough to lay two 4×8 plywood sheets end-to-end, dismantle a motorcycle upon, gut and clean five deer, or construct a normal size workbench–a workbench like this one.
Ya know, you can only gnaw so many LEGO wheel hubs before you’re like, “These should totally be made from a chunk of aircraft-grade aluminum.” Mark Carpenter is brilliant. As a qualifying ‘Father of the Year’, he and his three sons have started producing LEGO aftermarket mods, the latest of which is a set of aluminum rims, currently…
Non-designers have the misconception that design is easy. Any designer will tell you the polar opposite is true. Design is going up against a master ninja and his army of foot shoulders; when you are little more than a band of misfit humanoid turtle martial artist apprentice junk food eaters.
The new Line/Shape/Space site has an interesting read by Autodesk CTO, Jeff Kowalski. It is, of course, to promote Autodesk’s Dreamcatcher project, a parameter-based, generative design project, but the headline is nice and controversial, just the way we like’em.
When you think about it, the design of dice haven’t changed much over the years. You can get them in different colors and more sides if you’re doing a Dungeons & Dragons run, but otherwise you can always count on dice looking the same. One startup team is looking to change the way you think…
Have you been there? A sharp *crack* sending you and your carry-on suitcase into that unforgiving airport terminal traffic? I’ve cracked a suitcase wheel on an uneven surface, giving my baggage a mind of it’s own. With no better option, I picked up the heavy bag and carried it, sometimes from the side, sometimes from…
There are times when one needs to wash a few items of clothing, but it’s nowhere near being a full washing machine load. What to do! For those who adhere to a ‘green standard’, those small loads prey on the mind as being a waste of water, electricity and knob turning. Those who have very…
Imagine having your own garage machine shop and successfully funding 11 Kickstarter campaigns. If you’re Brad Martin who runs Tactical Keychains (TK), that’s a reality. His latest project is the Ti-MQR (Titanium Magnetic Quick Release), hitting funding of $1000 within hours and pushing toward the $100k mark with time to spare. Brad does 100% of the work…
12 centuries on and the Vikings are still a subject that looms large in our imaginations. Blonde, powerfully built men with horned helmets, nostrils flaring with aggression, weapon wielding to descend and capture. On a not-so-well-known note researchers assert that the weapon a Viking brought to his grave was a measure of his social standing.…
Although blow molding is a highly developed molding technology that’s been around since the late 1800’s to create hollow parts (such as plastic bottles) with uniform wall thicknesses, few have ever thought to use an actual blown-up animal balloon as a final material choice. Yet, for Seoul-based industrial designer Seungjin Yang, the use of balloons…
When it comes to tent camping, there’s a fine line between what can be a memorable weekend away or what can quickly turn into a disastrous nightmare that exposes you to the elements. Of course, ease of setup, resistance to the elements, and portability are the prime factors when it comes to tents, so it’s…
Desk space or even table space is often over-cluttered, leaving little of that valuable real estate left for anything besides a cup of Joe or some fatty snacks. To free up some of that precious space by relocating our mobile devices, inventors Igor Zemskov and Stephen Hughett of BLK SEA Studios designed the Anchor Dock,…
You’re on vacation on the Northeast coast of Italy – Trieste to be exact. It embodies Venice’s romantic waterways, while flirting with the styles of neighboring Croatia and Slovenia. You are engulfed in the cool, delicate scents carried by the gentle breeze. As you eat gelato and walk down the stone-paved pathways, you stumble upon…
When they first hit the scene with their Confidant sketchbook back in January of 2014, NYC-based Baron Fig became one of the few Kickstarter success stories that involved the creation of a sustainable brand rather than a one-hit wonder product. Today, the company has a mini-factory where they continue to crank out the user-friendly sketchbooks…
Back in the 80’s, the survival knife scene was dominated by cheap foreign-made Rambo blades. You know, the ones with the hollow handle that was filled with everything from matches to wire handsaws capped off with a compass that couldn’t point North to save your life. Fast-forward a few decades and the scene has shifted…
Today, we’re looking at something a little different. We don’t often cover topics outside industrial design and engineering, but we’re all about the process, the business of design, and particularly about how to successfully bring a product to market. VESTIGE is a shirt brand created by Kyle Derleth and Mark DiMuzio in 2015. They started small,…
It’s almost impossible to think about soft drinks without thinking about Coca-Cola. The brand has managed to stay on top for nearly 130 years, and a lot of the success may be based on its contour bottle design.
If you sit a computer all day, you likely have a speaker sitting there next to you, and if you like to take that speaker with you, it’s likely a portable, Bluetooth speaker. The sound quality among these is typically so-so, good enough to get you through the day. Most wouldn’t know the difference in…
Who doesn’t love a trip to Ikea? (10 hours and 5 plates of Swedish meatballs later… nobody.) Yes, while you’re browsing through the warehouse munching on those delicious café goods, you may want to take every piece of furniture home, but once the shopping high ends you’re faced with the agony of assembling and arranging…
You know when you meet someone who has worked harder than most and exudes a tenacity that is inspiring? This past year we were quite lucky to meet someone who is exactly that individual. We run an artist’s residency program where we meet a wide range of talented artists who want to learn about how digital…
With the upcoming release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on December 18th, it’s safe to say that we’re gearing up for Star Wars marketing overload – and if you’ve ever had plans to launch a Star Wars-related Kickstarter project, now would be a great time to do it. Among other Star Wars-related items that…
It takes a lot of determination, bravery, and selflessness to be a firefighter. It also takes good amount of strength considering all the tools they have to lug around, not to mention their heavy duty PPE suits that can weigh 45 pounds alone. You want to get the job done fast. So, what if there…
In most cases, sitting on a flat wood surface for hours at a time isn’t what most people would consider comfortable, but with an innovative new wood block cushioning system, they may be singing to a different tune. The Block System, which was masterminded by the mad geniuses at Los Angeles-based Sitskie Furniture Co, was…
Nature is often a great tool for inspiration for designers, except when the weather isn’t exactly cooperating. Rain storms, high winds, and falling leaves all work against those of us trying to get outside for a few moments of sketching or inspiration.
Whether we’re at work or just going out on the town, we all carry some items with us–a wallet, a smartphone or even a pocketknife. If you’re like me, that knife goes everywhere with you, but I must admit, my Benchmade Adamas is a little too big to be classified as EDC (Everyday Carry). For…
After having been inspired to extend storytelling media beyond two-dimensional space and into the physical world with interactive components, industrial designer Eun Young Park quickly found that a category of construction set was missing from the arsenal of today’s STEM toys: one that teaches kinetic design. Created as a part of her MA thesis at…
While Richard Branson is attempting to wage war on worker’s boredom, one young entrepreneur is convinced that if you are bored at work, you’d might as well be bored and healthy. The new Perch desk is the “Revolutionary Sit-to-Stand Desk” that promises to be the most customizable, affordable and quickly interchangeable desk of its kind…
Liberty Trike is killing its Indiegogo campaign with a stylish new spin on the conventional motorized scooter. The makers claim it offers more versatility, more power and easier transport than traditional mobility assistance devices, but the price may leave you limping. Mobility is something we all take for granted, until it’s gone. Liberty Trike wants…
There are literally hundreds of different smartphones on the market. We buy them, hoard them sometimes, and enjoy their apps while blocking out everything and everyone around us. Ah, technology.
When Joshua Lifton of Crowd Supply approached his mate Kurt Mottweiler to help design a variant case for hardware designer Bunnie Huang’s Novena open-source computer, it was hard for him to resist the opportunity. As a veteran, bespoke camera designer, Kurt was delighted to venture into a new area, where a non-touchscreen computer with a removable…
When running from a bear whilst out on a hike, there’s but one concern–getting clear, shake-free footage. There are various gimbals and stabalizer systems for the GoPro, but a new motorized option is making all the other options look weak. SLICK is a motorized GoPro stabilizer that allows you to record video hands-free, to let you focus on the activity, ahem, fleeing that…
When it comes to upcycling, old bicycle tires and discarded biscuit tins often come to mind – yet one of modern society’s most commonly disposed of objects just might be living in your back pocket right now. With an average lifespan of 18 months, bank notes around the world are decommissioned and destroyed about as…
Despite being the best building set around, LEGO brick creations are limited to one’s own imagination and rarely ever manifest into full-scale products – assuming one’s job doesn’t involve designing for Legoland. Although it’s certainly a few decades late for the majority of us who dreamt up spaceships of all shapes and sizes, a new…
Since the desktop 3D printer revolution took off a few years ago, many have been left wondering when we would start to see usable 3D printed product designs that are considerably more polished than your typical DIY 3D printing project. Particularly, how do you make something 3D printed and functional while also making it look…
Co-Founder Erik deBrun of Redshift Sports is an avid cyclists; this is his team’s second cycling related product and just like their first (the Switch Aero System – previously featured on SolidSmack) personal experiences and issues as cyclists gave birth to the ShockStop.
Although the concept of flat pack (or ready-to-assemble) furniture has been in existence for decades, a new generation of designers have been taking on the challenge of designing functional and aesthetically-pleasing furniture pieces that are capable of being broken down into boxes that aren’t just easier to ship and haul – but also reduce many…
As far as LEGO-inspired block building sets go, aspiring entrepreneurs have ran through the entire gamut of possibilities including different methods of interlocking the pieces to ways of fabricating them using a 3D printer. But how many people have simply just scaled up? In what might be a childhood fantasy come true for some, a…
With the average individual expected to move nearly a dozen times over the course of their life, you would think that somebody might have figured out by now how to make the moving experience slightly easier – yet many still suffer from the experience of awkwardly hauling their sofas and tables up and down stairwells,…