Founded in 2006 by Bono and Bobby Shriver to engage the private sector in raising both awareness and funds to help eliminate global diseases such as AIDS, (RED) has been a popular fundraising model that allows companies to offer unique products within their own brand that also help support the initiative. It would take a…
French designer Eugeni Quitllet has barely taken a breather since winning a Red Dot Award this year for his Masters Chair, and has proved once again that he is a master when it comes to working with plastics. In this new set of ‘TSA-safe’ airline cutlery for Air France, Quitllet proves that you’re never too…
Have you ever dreamed of what it would be like to live in the dark, popcorn-scented and smoke-filled acoustic glory of a 1950’s movie theater? If you have somewhere between $18,500-$175,000 to spend on a stereo system, then your 1950s-nostalgia dreams could come true with a custom, handmade audio system from Oswalds Mill Audio, which…
It’s no secret that ex-Apple designer Tony Fadell has found great success in his revolutionary Nest Thermostat design. The device has simplified the room temperature adjustment experience for thousands—and was one of the first smart home products that showed us a glimpse into the future of home living when it first came out. Riding on…
Inspired by the unique balance of what gives a fine whiskey it’s character, (in this case, Ballantine’s 12), Stockholm female design trio Front have created a unique sculpture set by the name of Ballance that embraces the ritual around consuming the fine liquor…so long as you can avoid ‘catching it’ with it’s balancing optical illusion…
Leave it to a lamp to lather the locally manufactured back of custom design and show us how efficient some products could be. Chris Chalmers, founder of Fabripod, is the San Francisco maker/creator behind the very cool Chrysalis project, a project with the idea of helping designers create custom products. Chris, taking the essence of that…
Here at SolidSmack, we do our very best to keep you on the forefront of the 3D printing world…but occasionally, it’s nice to simply sit-back and ogle something pretty! In terms of aesthetics, “pretty” might be one way to describe The Product’s Soundmachines, but stimulating, might be an even better word to encapsulate the Berlin-based…
Time to bring that retro skateboard design into the future and snag yourself a sweet, high performance composite ride. Hydroflex Skateboards, hailing from Oceanside, CA knows a thing or two about vintage surf style–They build surfboards. Now, they’re turning their attention toward skateboards, taking the retro style of the 70’s and literally infusing it with…
I’m all for tossing up some highly complex, geometrically intense, 3-dimensional visuals on flat surfaces to wow the senses and, I tell you what, Bot & Dolly do not disappoint. Bot & Dolly is a design and engineering studio that specializes in automation, robotics, and filmmaking, but to show off what their rigs and equipment…
There are but a few products in this world that really draw out the raw, bubbling essence of human ingenuity and mindful consideration of fellow man. And but a few tools you want at your disposal when formidable circumstances approach. The paint scraper. The shovel. The toilet plunger. Three things that should be on everyone’s…
For those who have tried Phillipe Starck’s Parrot Zik headphones, you might be familiar with the up/down swiping for adjusting the volume—among other touch-sensitive controls on the headphones themselves. While some non-audiophiles may scoff at a pair of $400 headphones, the design is truly a step forward in how we interact with our audio devices.…
To say that your trilogy of design-centered documentaries are all available on Netflix Streaming is no easy task—especially considering that the intended audience is in no way attracting the same crowds as say, Arrested Development. Yet director Gary Hustwit has earned those bragging rights and has also—to some degree or another—given mass audiences a peak…
It is no secret that high-fashion is like history; it is known to repeat itself. While the latest fads might not always be carbon-copies of their predecessors, the roots of modern style are often painfully obvious to those with an observant eye—and eyeglasses themselves might be the perfect example of this. With the recent rise…
You may have just returned from that weekend trip, growing your beard and connecting with nature via a fish hook to the cheek… the ear… and also the upper eyelid. You even caught a few fish to prove it could actually be done, but tying on those fish hooks after clipping them repeatedly from the…
Love it or hate it, McDonalds food is here to stay. While little can be done to ween people off of the iconic convenience food, simple ways of re-thinking existing design elements in the McDonalds ecosystem can have a dramatic domino effect worldwide—15% of the total weight of a McDonalds order is packaging alone. Take…
Ever wonder what a LEGO garden would look like? TogetherFarm founders Matt Stormont, Joe Aakre, and Doug Holcomb have set out to recreate what it means to have a backyard garden through the use of LEGO-inspired bio-plastic building blocks. With a retaining wall design that requires few materials to haul and eliminates the need for…
It seems like everybody has a favorite product from the Back to the Future series. Whether it’s Marty McFly’s Nike Air Mag Sneakers, a Delorean, or the Black and Decker ‘Hydrator’ that turns a Bagel Bite into a full-sized pizza in seconds. Personally, I’ve always dreamed of owning a Hoverboard. While there have been a…
BMW just announced that their new i3 electric car was heavily inspired by the latest in tablet and smartphone designs. Given that the automotive industry is usually on the forefront of trends that trickle down into other facets of design, does this mean that the frosted overlays, thin typeface (Helvetica Neue), flat graphics, and gradients…
For those of you who have implemented the new Power Surfacing plug in for SolidWorks into your toolset, your work has no doubt taken a more organic route. For those unfamiliar with the plug in, Power Surfacing allows you to design complex freeform Class A surfaces in SolidWorks without the headache of patching trimmed surfaces…
For his ‘about’ section on his Behance profile page, designer Francois Xavier Saint Georges of Montreal describes his work as “low tech, bare hands, and experimental”. With that in mind, it’s not surprising that his slingshot design is entirely void of the actual ‘slingshot’ itself. With his clever go-anywhere design, you can pack this badboy…
If you’ve not heard of Craighton Berman, you’ve seen his work (or work inspired by his). He’s an industrial designer/illustrator based in Chicago and it just so happens that this year’s IDSA International Conference is in Chicago as well. So, it worked out quite nicely for Craighton to stop by and lend his signature sketching…
You may have noticed a more frequent collection of 2D printing-based news here on the ‘Smack in recent weeks. Why? Well…because in this 3D printing-obsessed world, it’s become a refreshing mental break to see new ways of doing something that for decades was done literally the exact. same. way. every. frickin’. time. Additionally, 2D printing…
Everyone wants to be loved. Everyone also wants a bucket of booze when they’re not loved. You could grab that mug shaped like a sad, baby owl (or just fall in the bucket) to drown your sorrows, but if you want to be sad in style or just have a quick snap from your fav…
What is a ‘smart home’ supposed to look like these days? How is the sudden increase of smart products on the market going to shape the future of home living both from aesthetic and convenience standpoints? NYC-based trend research company PSFK set out to create an interactive smart home experience for the urban environment that…
Remember when regular 2D paper printers were all the rage? Neither do I. However, as much as we’ve taken the paper printer for granted it’s still one area that has been plagued with bad design time and time again: flimsy plastic components, cumbersome ink cartridge replacement experiences, and overall bulky awkwardness all remind me why…
In a not too distant future, you’ll absorb your coffee through the air, control your home thermostat with third eyelash from your left eye and sculpt crazy alien faces in your browser. Actually, that last one is already here. It has been for some time as a open source port of a school project by…
Perhaps nobody loves cardboard as much as Yale Mechanical Engineering graduate Zach Rotholz. After years of working with cardboard at various other jobs and internships, he launched Chairigami; a company that sells recyclable, cheap and sturdy cardboard furniture that is perfect for temporary setups (or if you have a back of steel, a permanent setup).
Founded as the Star Furniture Company in 1905 in Zeeland, Michigan, the name changed to Herman Miller after the president of Star Furniture (Dirk Jan De Pree) offered stock to his father-in-law who purchased 51% of the company. His father-in-law’s name? You guessed it: Herman Miller. Eventually the name would become synonymous with some of…
Each month, tons of fire hoses from the thousands of fire departments around the world end up in landfills. Oakland, California-based startup Oxgut (sweet name BTW, inspired by what firehoses used to be made of) is aiming to re-route at least a few of those through their network of designers and artisans where the hoses…
Readers who religiously track the origin, blend, and temperature of their professionally-pulled morning espresso shots might want to turn away from this one. This week, the first test-run of a new vending machine service called Briggo Coffee Hauses (designed in conjunction with Yves Behar and his Fuseproject group) launched in Austin, Texas. Would you trust…
Before the ever-popular selfie-style photograph…which arguably has a very high compositional failure rate…people did things the old fashioned way: they asked someone to take a photo for them. Japanese company Sunpole saw a glaring opportunity in world where smartphones outnumber people and created the first ‘official’ selfie smartphone stand.
For those in the market for a new desk toy, your future just became 1,210 LEGO blocks brighter. LEGO has announced a new building kit specifically aimed at adults (or very mature youngfolk) that focuses on the principles of design and architecture. Nope, this isn’t a specific model like other LEGO Architecture kits. This is…
Between smart locks and smart thermostats, the Smart Home Revolution just keeps getting better for those wanting total control of their home through their devices. The latest to enter the market comes in the form of Canary—a fitting name for an all-in-one home monitoring device that features an HD camera, a microphone, night vision, motion…
Founded in 2010 by book editor Patrick Mulligan and graphic designer Ben Gibson, the mission of Pop Chart Lab was to do one thing and do it very well: render all of human experience in chart form. Three years later, the two have found themselves with new titles (Patrick as Editorial Director and Ben as…
Since he retired from his graphic art profession 15 years ago, Hal Lasko now spends 10 hours a day crafting pixel art pixel by pixel. Due to his deteriorating eyesight, Hal uses the zoom tool extensively to create works that even some of today’s most talented graphic artists could learn from. In this mini documentary…
For those well-versed in their Vietnamese cuisine, Pho (or phở) is one of the most common and loved dishes that can be eaten at pretty much any time of day. It is the official national soup of Vietnam and is often spoken highly-of due to it’s wide range of complex flavors and the implementation of…
The crossroad between interaction design and food/drink has been explored more frequently in recent memory as sculptors, designers, artists, and makers stretch the bounds of what creates a culinary experience. So far we have seen bread that has been designed to act as a scouring sponge for cleaning up the remains of a plate, cookies…
Luxury camping? Sounds like an oxymoron, yet we have been seeing an increasing amount of modified trailer solutions that throw the term ‘roughing it’ into…well, the rough. Among other crazy/functional designs floating around right now are the recently released camper concepts from BMW’s Mini. In an age where camping without any charging cables for a…
Who needs a dinner bell anymore? As smart home devices become more mainstream and accessible, so does the market for creating a ‘smart family’. The kid-oriented FiLIP smartwatch offers a glimpse into how an application-specific design (rather than a design for ‘apps’) just might be the answer for thriving in the smartwatch market.
It started with a 3D printed pinhole camera for hobbyists. Enthusiasts took it to the other extreme seeking ultimate quality with the wildly successful Travelwide 4×5 kickstarter campaign. Twenty-four year old Léo Marius has taken the middle road this time around with his project OpenReflex; a 35mm film SLR concept created with…you guessed it, a…
If you’ve ever tried to restore the inside, outside or underside of an Airstream, you know living in a 3×6 foot area of the trailer while you redo the plumbing over 2 years is just one of the small joys. That’s the DIY approach. The approach that will save you time and keep your last…
Don’t let your eyes deceive you people…this is not a mockup or macro photography trickery. Inspired by the appearance of corrugated cardboard, Swedish design studio TAF recently designed the offices for Swedish branding and design agency NINE with interiors that resemble cardboard boxes—a well-played nod to the packaging design that happens within the agency’s walls.
With all the recent talk surrounding Apple’s iOS 7 redesign and the push for creating better harmony between software and hardware design, it’s easy to overlook an industry that has been tackling this design problem for years: the digital camera industry. Nikon’s design department recently released a video that takes us behind the scenes of…
We’ve come a long way from the bulky, steam-spewing technologies of yesteryear. Today’s gadgets are sleek, sexy testaments of where we’ve come from and where gadget design for the home is headed. Some operate invisibly, working from behind the scenes to make your life easier, while others catch the eye like a camera flash. What…
Not sure about you, but I enjoy a plate of steaming hot Styrofoam chunks and raw silicon rubber in the morning. I enjoy it even more when it’s chock full of electronic and re-soldered PCB bits. Delicious. Now, take that and turn it into a lesson on form, function and recycling a USB mouse to…
There have been quite a few multitool products launched on Kickstarter, even a few for your pocket, but do any of them pop the top of a bottle and let you tighten a 8mm hex head on your fancy scooter? NO. Not like the Ringtool does anyway. Ringtool is a single-piece multi-tool, designed by Jonathan…
You all know the Playstation 4 (PS4) and the Xbox One are preparing to stock the shelves of many a store and the TV console of many a gaming fiend. With all the attention each new console systems has been receiving, the exclusive games for each and the updated box-tastic designs, the choice is becoming…
It’s a toss-up, but typically, I prefer to strap the skull of a massive Zebu or Longhorn to the handlebars of my bike, just to stay stylish. In the common situation where I need to access my phone for directions to the local skull buffing facility, I risk gouging myself or others. On top of…
If there’s one outlet that 3D printing really shines, its in finding new ways to upcycle existing products that would otherwise end up as waste. Take the Sprout for example: through a simple design and 3D print, an otherwise disposable item becomes something a heck of a lot more useful…and in some cases, better than…
Once you get past the phase of trying to impress others by bending 1/2″ plywood in your new swimsuit, take the uncomfortable onlookers into an air-conditioned room and show them this fabulous chair. The Eira Chair is designed by Rafael Fernández, Product designer and co-owner of Oitenta, a two-man product design and development studio in…
