When it comes to silicone molds, the possibilities for fun are boundless. Whether you’re using an existing Death Star mold to create a concrete vase or are creating an entirely new mold for a space shooter prototype, silicone molds have always been one of the most fun—and educational—ways of creating a three-dimensional object. Among other…

There are several reasons why Andrey Rudenko would have wanted to print his own 3D Castle – he wanted his own backyard kingdom and rule all Makerbots, or perhaps something as simple as revolutionizing the construction industry. We caught up with this interesting man, to get under his skin and understand why a 3D Castle…

Of the many titles conferred on Galileo Galilei, ‘The Father of Modern Observational astronomy’, is perhaps the most apt one in context of today’s topic – Telescopes. We all know that the credit of improvements to the telescope and the consequent astronomical observations goes to Galileo. Although the first telescope appeared in the Netherland, it…

I love me a high-precision, interlocking aluminum light fixture. You would be hard pressed to fall out of a two-story window and land on a truck full of anything of the sort these days. However, the scrap-savvy, layer-lovin’ crew at Graypants, Inc. has created, perhaps, the most ingenious of all lighting designs in an effort…

It would be a great trade-off to spend the day outdoors, working whilst sitting on a green patch, rather than stay confined behind the desk indoors. However our power-hungry gadgets won’t allow us more than a couple of hours, which is why the Flexidesk makes a lot of sense.

After earning a degree in architecture and specializing in industrial design, Ferrari’s Chief of Design Flavio Manzoni began his design career in 1993 working at FIAT’s Lancia Design Center. In only eight short years, Manzoni’s talents allowed him to rise through the ranks to become the chief designer of the FIAT Group Design Center. With…

Save for a piñata, few objects encourage destruction as a part of the user experience—let alone objects that aren’t meant to be discarded after their use. While you won’t be finding any Laffy Taffy or Skittles inside the cavity of the ‘/’ Lamp, it does however encourage you to beat the living crap out of…

If you’re like my grandma, you’ll pop a rum raisin in your mouth and say, “I’ve seen every iPad case, pack, flap and stand that’s been squeezed from a designer’s forehead pores!” True, there are many iPad cases, but every once in a while, someone actually thinks of the problems that come with the burden…

Previously, SolidSmack reported on the Sense ‘Smart Sleeping System’ that launched on Kickstarter a few weeks ago. The well-priced $99 sleep management system aims to ‘combine the insight of your sleep patterns with the data of the environment in your bedroom, including noise, light, temperature, humidity and particles in the air’. In an age where…

Drinking a chilled glass of beer is serious business; you can’t just pick up any glass and pour in some ale to enjoy it. Oh boy! Getting drunk is a lot harder than you think. There are scientific studies that show that the shape of your beer glass impacts your drinking experience. Basically it will…

Over the past 30 years, the landscape of video controller design has been nearly just as colorful as the varieties of game options that they are controlling. When comparing the simplistic directional pad and two-button layouts of some of the earliest controller designs to the more ‘smart’ (and complicated) designs seen in today’s Playstation and…

Drones are quickly becoming commonplace and it’s not only military and law enforcement who have them. Even the kid a couple of houses over has a quadrocopter lit up with LEDs he flies at night a couple of times per week, prompting me to take video and uploading it to YouTube to see how many…

There’s a man who does all of his design work from the French Hotel Cafe in Berkeley, California. His name is Kenneth Smythe. His designs are loaded with symbloism, very high-end, completely open-source and created for a random sequencing production system. If I wanted to describe his work in a way that would make you…

Let’s admit it: wireframe views in CAD are awesome. While they may not be functional or necessary 100% of the time, the combination of even line weights and simple, informative curves to guide your eye really do standout as a unique form of digital and art. Inspired by the unique look of the wireframe display,…

With music festivals such as Coachella, Bumbershoot and Bonnaroo gaining record-attendance numbers each year, the sleeping conditions are still, well…terrible for the majority of festival-goers. While some attendees like to use the music festival as a ‘roughing it’ experience on par with camping, the conditions are still less than ideal for the majority of people…

Learning how to use chopsticks for the first time is no easy task—especially if your appetite isn’t willing to take a backseat while learning a new food-to-mouth delivery method. For those with motor impairments such as Parkinson’s Disease, the experience can be exponentially frustrating. Aiming to solve a problem that affects millions worldwide, Japanese chopstick…

Remember how Ross (FRIENDS) was unsuccessful at keeping off the sandwich thief from stealing his lunch at work? Wish he had this modded Nerf Sentry Gun to keep the crook at bay. Oh well, don’t be Ross – Part Two, because we have for you the exact details on how to mod the Nerf Gun…

If you’re an avid backpacker, cyclist, runner, or just plain like carrying a plastic reservoir for your hydration needs around with you, chances are you’ve come into contact with that undesirable (and unavoidable) side effect of weird tastes and smells each sip of the way. Regardless if your portable vessel has been plastic or metal,…

Sleep. Some of us just can’t get enough of it and will spend plenty of money on products to make sure that when we get it in those seemingly small doses….we get the most out of it that we can. Within the last few years, sleep has been looked upon as one of the most…

The following video captures the passion of Paul Arestan – a knife maker – and how he has managed to turn his simple pastime into an evolved art. Going by his story, Paul seems heavily influenced by his grandfather whose hobby was repairing old pocketknives. His father too is an antique swords collector. This oldest…

While the argument over barefoot running is still up in the air, one thing is for certain: Nike’s marketing department has done a stellar job of marketing the ‘minimalist’ running shoe with everything from pushing shoe designer Mark Miner into the design rockstar spotlight to a portfolio of memorable ads including the infamous ‘Flyswatter’ ad…

Upcycling Pallets as functional furniture or hacking them, as firewood is an old tale. The new age demands something more dynamic and drastic, which is why we bless innovative souls like Tomáš Moravec who give us a remote thrill ride from many miles away. Yes, this daredevil has hacked the Pallet to be his personal…

Touted as a ‘zero break-in’ glove, Nike is setting the bar high for themselves with a product that has a culture of ‘break-in enthusiasts’ known for hacking the break-in process in order to create a deeper bucket for those pop flies. As baseball becomes increasingly quicker and more athletic (like all other sports), innovation is…

Did you know that up until the early 20th century, it was mostly women who wore a wristwatch? The concept of wearing watches on the wrist dates back to the earliest 16th Century version that was crafted by Robert Dudley in 1571 and given to Elizabeth I of England as an arm watch. Men mostly…

We can almost hear the ‘whys’ coming our way, but if you look at it from the creator – Deena Khattab’s perspective – a 3D printed pinhole camera contraption for the iPhone, sounds like a great idea. The background is that this was Deena’s first 3D printing project and iPhone is a passion, so it…

When you live in expensive cities like London, every inch in your apartment is like prime real estate space, teaching you the art of multi-purposing the interiors. DIY fan Jude Pullen was recently in a similar situation – in London – and he came up with this really simple and minimalist Under Desk Tool Drawer…

You may never find out the real reason why the chicken crossed the road, but after reading this article you will know the real reason why a chicken farmer did. So here, meet John Leenders, a man passionate about transforming forgotten or disregarded resources into stunning pieces of furniture.

We all know that using rubber (condoms) can prevent babies from coming into this world, but have you considered it (rubber band) saving a baby’s life? When the Global Polymer Institute at the University of Akron held their The Rubber Band Contest for Young Inventors, young fledglings came up with many ingenious ideas, but it…

This is evil genius; an innovative way of reducing plastic waste by making ropes out of used plastic bottles. All you need is a simple bottle-cutting contraption that is improvised as shown by our innovator-of-the-day – Lawyer Egorov. The two-part video showcased here, walks us through the process of reducing a bottle to a ribbon…

Bet you have snazzy plans for the 4th of July, and rightly so. Besides celebrating the most important day in the history of United States with fireworks, how about you give it a splash and twist with this DIY project from sugru? As you know this magic material is water resistant and is used in…

We have seen Theo Jansen blow our minds with his walking kinetic sculptures that he calls ‘a new form of life’. Now its time to get whimsical with Korean kinetic artist U-Ram Choe, whose lineage includes a scientist grandfather and sculptor parents. He was recently housed at the Autodesk Workshop at Pier 9 in San…

Hold the Cheetos and fruit snacks! The average child throws away an estimated 55 lbs of food a year from school lunches…and we’re pretty sure that the majority of that is damaged food (smashed sandwiches?) or food that isn’t being served in its optimum state (who wants cold tomato soup?). Needless to say, fresh food…

Oftentimes with upcycling, the best executions haven’t always been in repurposing wasted objects in their current physical state but rather, using the base material to create a new material to work with. We’ve seen this with ‘useless’ bike tubes that have been sliced and sewn together to create a rubber sheet for bags—or even something…

Inspiration is one of the key ingredients in innovation and from time immemorial; we have turned to nature for that. I remember bringing home Pine Cones from the forest and making DIY jewelry like this, and flaunting it like a princess. Perhaps guys can try their hand at this beautiful wreath for the holidays. Anyway,…

Synonymous with innovation for more than seven decades, the Danish design house Bodum owes much of its success to their visionary founder Peter Bodum. In his very own words – Good design doesn’t have to be expensive – let us add to that – Nothing should stop Good Design from looking and feeling expensive. For…

What totally looks like the lair of a master race of bees after they’ve modernized and gained the ability to manufacture plastics? Your loft after you install HYVE. HYVE is a fresh new product from Herbst Produkt that has our OCD kicked into overdrive. I’ve seen modular storage and modular organization before, but I’ve got…

There are several wonders to 3D printing technology: the machines, the materials, the art and… the people. Ah, the people giving us an unbridled release of creative genius. Like the laws of nature, some things are always best done in moderation and this, well, it applies to industry and hitting copy on a weapon printing…

It is the most important question that you want to pop, but will a 3D Printed Ring make the cut? Will it create excitement or disaster? There are two ways you can look at the first ever Nervous System diamond engagement ring. Cheap Bastard or OMG – Sentimental Fool Creative Genius – I love you…

Either you end up renting an expensive day locker or loosing some valuables at the beach – either ways you are screwed. Designer Marcal DaCunha shares similar sentiments, which is why he has this cool project called Beach Vault on Kickstarter. We caught up with him to know what triggered him to design this amazing…

The task on hand was to find you “11 Ways To Use a 3D Printer Cable (That Your Parents Didn’t Tell You About)”, however we thought to expand our horizons and include the likes of USB Cable, Telephone Cable, Ethernet Cable and more. So, if you have your parents’ permission (and access to a butt-load…

For folks like us that literally live, eat, sleep (and even takes a crap) with their tablet or phone attached to the end of their fingertips, this Onion report comes as great news. Imagine spending all day and night rocking back and forth just like a baby in mommy’s womb. Wellness geeks say that ‘curling…

Sure, we would all love to have a Giant Solar Death Ray or even a simple Tree Branch Edison Bulb Lamp, but at the end of the day the most effective (and sometimes, challenging) designs are those that make life better for those needing assistance to perform basic tasks. Currently featured amongst their highlighted contest…

Kids these days… Inspired by the need to create a cup for her grandfather who had difficulty holding onto drinking vessels due to his Parkinson’s Disease symptoms, 11-year-old Lily Born of Chicago created a unique cup design that has already surpassed its goal on Kickstarter in less than a week. The three-legged Kangaroo Cup was…

IAmElemental Universe set out to change the conversation about girls and power. They are not anti-doll or anti-princess. Rather, they subscribe to the notion that if you give a girl a different toy, she will tell a different story. And, if you change the way that a girl plays, you can change the way she…

August couldn’t come sooner because that is the month the Research Institute Edition of Lego, hits the self. Designed by Ellen Kooijman, a geochemist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, this series of Lego Women in the field of science and research was picked over Sherlock Holms, Legend of Zelda, and Japanese Old Styled…

Editor Note: August 7th, 2014 – It has been brought to our attention that Tim Callahan is not the originator of this product. On June 21, 2013, Industrial Designer Diane Bayard submitted the Beach Chess idea to Quirky. On July 19th, 2013 is was selected for development. Tim took the idea, 3D printed it and…

It’s almost as if they evolved from the magical dust of silver and steel, candle wick trimmers have made their presence felt from early 1200s to 1500s. While we still have people around Northern Europe scavenging the landscape for Georgian English sterling silver candle wick trimmers and snuffers – yes that is what they were…

The purpose of the cadjunkie tutorials is to take your passion to the next step and put to use the lessons learnt. Confirmed cadjunkie Andy Birko learned to model guitar necks via this tutorial and utilized this knowledge by making guitar necks that are super sexy. We hitched a ride with him and asked him…

Already ranked number 43 of the 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, Coca Cola has been working relentlessly to improve their image in the realm of recycling plastic bottles. While one could argue that doing away with plastic bottles would be the end-all solution, the fact of the matter is that plastic bottles aren’t…

When it comes to creating innovative products for musicians, leave it up to the industrial designers who are musicians themselves to solve some of the more infuriating problems of traveling with musical equipment. Such is the case with Portland, Oregon-based industrial designer Patrick Triato, vocalist/guitarist for the band Bears. Along with fellow Portland industrial designer…