Set down those bottled brews. Really, stop prying them against your dear friends collar bone. There’s a better way to pop the top then hop on your ride. It has everything to do with highly machinable, lightweight 6061 aluminum and an array of anodized colors to make your bike pals snap your lycra… hey! Your…

I’m sure you’ve stood alone in a dark room, with silence as thick as the black crawling over you. Then screaming… and pies. Thousands of pies. But where are they coming from? No one knows. It all seems to appear from the darkness of space. Much like the light that suddenly turned on to reveal…

Gaze upon it. Don’t touch! You’ll mar the smooth birch laminate and formica colorcore. Just look. It’s a thing of butt-holding beauty. Chunky, industrial, modern, vintage, dare we say PLAYFUL? …all mixed together in four legs and bucket to hold your bottom. The chair designs you are about to experience are created by Kenneth Smythe.…

Well, that’s it. You and the design school that spit you out… suck. Toss that portfolio in the rubbish heap. Gadi Amit, president of NewDealDesign in San Francisco has an article this week over at Fast Co.Design called American Design Schools Are a Mess, and Produce Weak Graduates. Agree or Disagree?

Click-click-click-click. You feel the cold steel against the back of your head. You’ll never forget that sound again… you know, if you survive. Back in the days of frontier life, hard winter nights and cattle drives the very distinct sound of a certain gun loading a bullet into the chamber encapsulated all the risks, restraint…

You’re sitting in a design review meeting. In a conference room. The dull buzz of the fluorescent lights match the mono-tone static of some voice in the room, but who cares, you’ve got a pen. Before you know it, you’ve inked an entire mural across the wall, the whiteboard and your boss’ face. He would…

There’s been a rebellion of sorts. SolidWorks, to the mild dismay of the regular PR and ad agency channels, has gone out on their own. Not in any permanent way, mind you. Regular programming will soon return, but in the meantime, SolidWorks is getting back to their roots and dishing out a little emotive attitude…

Here’s something you’ll absolutely love. If you’ve ever had a fan, screen or keyboard go out, most laptops require you to purchase new tools, tear the laptop completely apart, then stab the tiny screwdrivers into your eyes after becoming completely frustrated. So, if you’ve ever taken a dremel to the back of a latop (like…

Eventually, the dishes just pile up so high in the sink you spray them with the nearest alcoholic beverage and light them on fire. When you see the result is only a light charring, out comes the broom handle you use to awkwardly jam them down the garbage disposal. There’s a better way, a better…

It never fails. You put leftovers in and either a mold infested lifeform emerges or the skin is torn off your fingers from freezer burn. Your fridge has it out for you… and it’s time to show it who’s in charge of your food preservation needs. However, before you empty that knife block into it’s…

Occasionally, I’ll see some Antonio Gaudi architecture, and just start draping balls of strings and chains from everything, cover it with plaster and throw some shards of glass at it. If you know (and appreciate) Gaudi, you might feel the same. The work he’s done is inspiring, as is the work he’s inspired in others.…

I know you’re busy strapping a flamethrower and Gatling gun to the front of your 1958 Norton Dominator, but stop, I say. STOP! Norton motorcycles has new and wonderful things in the works. For one, the headquarters was moved from Oregon, USA back to the temperate isle beauty of the UK. That was in 2008.…

I could seriously watch this video over and over again… In fact, I have. So much so, I caught fire myself and had to be doused with a potted plant from the kitchen. I love watching skateboard videos, but this one does something a little different. This one tells the reason behind the madness and…

We all know it. There are at least six programs that go into design process. That is, when there are more than five programs used. And with that, there’s a workflow that needs to be beat into submission. You’re about to see one that has been dealt with thusly. You remember the design arsenal poll…

It’s the question we ponder when putting the cat in the dryer, cutting down the neighbors tree or slicing ham with the back of a shoe. What’s 3D good for? Can you answer that? It’s challenging I know, but the first thing that may come to mind….Braballs. I could end the post there, but I…

If you’ve birthed a wee one, or have been involved in the process of choosing an appropriate container to cart them around in, you might be familiar with Phil & Ted’s. They make the buggies that make your head turn when you’re trudging down the running path like an angry marsupial mama with three children…

You know you’re cool when you pull up in a truck blasting Atreyu’s Bleeding Mascara and wearing your freaking rad bike helmet. Yeah, people know it… YOU… ARE SERIOUS. Serious. Like the “Kiss of Death” or like Troy Lee Designs when it it comes to designing helmets that look impressive whether you’re flying through the…

One look at this and you’ll want to grab a vat of melted butter. What happens when design goes head on with engineering? Something beautiful and crustacean-like. The collaboration between the two disciplines can yield some pretty amazing products and at ICFF, one of the largest contemporary furniture shows in North America. This year, there…

Before you reach in that bucket and grab a week-old shard of melted plastic to gnaw on for a little iPad case-makin’ inspiration, look at what the necessity for flatness and reduced material usage has resulted in. Like many of you, Jeff Bare, of jbare designs, knew he would be getting an iPad the first…

You might have a dad that builds you cool camera accessories, but what if you have one that attached rockets to anything that moves? Even better. Ron Patrick is Mechanical Engineer that has no problem with jamming jets into tiny vehicles, so that’s what he did. One modified turboshaft engine, one VW Bug, one sweet…

If your nerves, family or free-time have been affected by the frenzy of the shiny new iPad from Apple, you’re not alone. In less than a month Apple sold over 1 million of the 10″ touch-screen tablets. However, only a small percent of those people are obsessed with getting a 3D model of the iPad…

You’re gonna kick yourself after you see this and think about the grove of bamboo and blood-thirsty, wild panda you just cleared out of your backyard. You so could have fashioned it into an iPhone case. Not to worry, Ken Tomita and his wily gang of sustainable-minded makers have you covered. It’s Grove, an Oregon-based…

You just know, when you see babies… in pods, nothing good can come of it. It either means baby alien mama’s are gonna hatch and eat your face or that someone had no idea what they were thinking for a design. This one happens to be the later. Designed by Caterina Tiazzoldi, this structure of…

You know when you get on the bus or, even better, when you’re walking through the mall and people are looking at you like a mass of USB cords just exploded out of your jawbone? It’s because it has and it’s scaring the children. Not to worry! You can tame those wily cords with Gonglue…

If you’ve surrounded yourself with thousands of lighted spheres like I have, you’ll be interested to learn of the potential for incredibly cool design living within each of the precious glowing orbs. Andre Baran of formendesign.de knows, and has animated a spherical surprise to impress upon you the true nature of transformation as applied to…

Seriously, no bullets are gonna help, no alliance with the undead or any sort of blunt object or girly scream. The end… is near…. and where ever you run, the werewolf hordes are approaching. Fortunately, you’ve already been bitten and eventually you’ll feel a a sharp bone shifting jab as technological morphotypes wrap their corpuscular…

I know you enjoy the magnificence of your hairy knuckles as much as the next guy, but after you take a look at this ring, you may be reaching for razor. Ben Hopson and entrepreneur Glen Liberman of Kinekt Design are collaborating together on a series of kinetic jewelry pieces. This Gear Ring is the…

Well, it’s happened. Someone at SolidWorks had a few too many no-doze with NOS chasers (and I’m almost positive) shot through the Concord office with fire spraying from their back screaming, LET’S GO DESIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGN!!!!!!!!! It was effective. Starting last week, LetsgoDesign.tv is up and running. There’s not any actual video yet, but the tone is…

Many of us are plugged directly into the monitor, starting and ending the design process within the confines of a virtual 3-dimensional prototype. Rubbish. What if that was only a small part in the middle of the entire process? The Futures Channel slaps the spectacles off the idea of 3D CAD and rapid prototyping with…

If you’re like me, you’ve been a bit uneasy and perhaps bitter that you didn’t get the foam projectile device you wanted so badly for Christmas. Wipe those tears, because it’s a new year and there’s something even cooler you’ll want to get your hands on. Phil Sluder of Triaxial Design has all the boys…

I know, you think school desk and B-movie horrors of being eaten by one while creepy freckled children laugh scream their way back into memory… while you’re in the middle of a presentation… for a multi-million dollar contract. Not good. Fortunately, Phelan Miller has a fresh take on school desk for the learning establishments of…

For those of us not born with carbon composite cruising wheels for legs, doomed to walk the dry earth and swampy grassland, someone has finally had pity on us. Michael Jenkins from Adelaide, Australia has spent the past three years developing the best possible solution to mount large wheels to your legs while not looking…

I’ve always wanted to let up for a few minutes, take a break from marking all over my face and arms and really get into the nitty-gritty of making my 3D sketch shapes look magnificent. Fortunately, Spencer from IDSketching is here to show us how to do just that. With the following video, he makes…

Lame. You so, do not have enough playful-looking, plastic figurines sitting on your desk or hanging out of your pockets. (This is the part where two small Korean children suddenly appear with giant smiles and laughter.) 훌륭한춥구나때려때려!! Sumajin Flex Champion!! Yes. I agree. “awesome cool slap slap.” Sumajin, maker of iPhone cases and other tech…

Well, the last poll showed people overwhelmingly think our robots servants should keep management quarantined. For good reason, no doubt. We all want to frolic in the freedom of designing and rendering awesome bits of plastic and metal in our favorite 3D program. There’s probably a time in your life that you remember 2D being…

Before the end of this post you will be Sugru-ing a ceramic cup to your face or you’ll want to. We missed the big news last week, but better late than taken unaware and slapped with a silicon oven mitt. You may have heard about Sugru a few months back, but last week it happened.…

I don’t know about you, but the Tauntaun scene in Empires Strikes Back was EPIC. In one captivating scene, it taught us the single best way to survive a blizzard is to have the carcass of a very large, very smelly animal with you. Scott Holden was equally inspired and decided to create his own…

Good news for all of you who inadvertently stick your hands in the front fork of bicycles from time to time. You’re gonna have to go back to sticking them in the chain with this new, totally functional bike design from Olli Erkkila. Olli, graduate of Lahti University Institute of Design in Finland, not only…

Out of the list of awesome things you’ve accomplished, including bathing a kitty, chopping celery and catching a pineapple in your mouth, there’s some other things as a human being, and even more, as a design engineer, you should be able to do. If not, you’re doomed. In response to a guest post here on…

Don’t you just love tops. I’ve always liked them. They just make you feel like stripping out the carpet, painting yourself red and spinning as many as you can right before the in-laws walk into the room. That, however, has nothing to do with the design and inspiration behind the Herman Miller Select series of…

I know the number one thing you are wondering as you tumble down a rocky cliff on your snowboard is, how the heck am I going to get back up there to do this all over again. Problem solved… at least for Ken Block it is. He, along with Rally America and a handful of…

Once again 3D is hitting the iPhone with a fearsome tenacity that makes you just plain ignore regular phone users. But this time the 3D goodness isn’t in the iPhone, it’s on it… and it’s on it in a not-over-the-top-at-all, ultra-fashionable way. FreshFiber, with the styling skills of Janne Kyttanen, has launched a fresh line…

It’s been a while since your uncle that glues batteries and LED’s to his face has visited, so you may be getting a little anxious to view blinking lights and oddities that boggle the mind. Lucky you. Today we have a light-emitting creation from the mind of Paul Pounds. It stuffs 133 surface-mounted LEDs into…

I’m positive. If you could wrap yourself around a Subaru Turbocharged Car Engine and tear down the road, you would, you so would, and so would I. But the difference between you and I, is that I would have six bike flags and a license plate that read WHEELIE. No matter how you cruise, there’s…

If there’s anything that cramps your daring sense of style, and your flaring lower back muscles it’s an inadequate office chair with absolutely hideous lines and a crushing lack of support. To counter those effects, Herman Miller has launched another stylish chair. The Setu. If you recall the Embody chair, you’ll know a lot went…

You remember, as a child, when you would take your little brother’s head, cover it with mud and hope he would lay still long enough for it to dry so you could crack it open and see if he was an alien? Well, nice try, but your childish antics have got nothin’ on what a…

USSubs, like SolidSmack, is 100% 2D free. They may actually be a little more 2D free. What exactly do they engineer? I’m glad to pretend you asked. They engineer Personal Luxury Submarines. I imagine their sales pitch needing more than just those three words. Personal luxury subs, you say? I’ll take five, I say. They…

3D slicin’ spiders are cool and all, but how would you like to harness the power of VACUUMS… and LASERS? Well, guess what, some fancy group called ‘NASA’ has done just that. The claim is they can melt certain heat-sensitive metals layer-by-layer into parts, with advantages of decreasing waste and forming it around electronics or…

I’m serious as printed Nutella when I say this. You’re about to get silly thoughts in your head. Silly thoughts about fabbing up this type of trinket or that type of trinket, in a really different way than ever before. CloudFab is set to provide you with more options for your sly design fabrication needs.…

It’s so not cool when someone looses a finger or five or when a movie like Body of Lies shows one way it could happen. Fortunately, there are companies working on impressive new ways to give those fingers back. Discover Magazine has an article on Sucking the Real World into your computer via 3D Scanning.…