While there used to be a painful shortage of inspirational design sketching books out there, these days, design students and those looking to refresh their skill set may, in fact, have too many to choose from. The good news is, there’s something different to learn from each—so go ahead and build out that library. Among other design sketching book favorites, we love the broad variety of sketching styles presented in Sketching. While the book is ideal for any design student or classroom, many professionals and design studios will also likely learn a thing or two from the wide variety of sketching styles and form examples presented within the book’s 256…

Get that stretch out of your system with this week’s Spotify-powered SolidSmack Radio Playlist. It’s fashioned up, ready to make you pull your shoulder blades back and knock out another week of meaningful work while you bob your head to the beat. Whether you’re in the shop milling aluminum, sketching the latest product prototypes or modeling up a 3D storm, consider these tracks as a tool for your process. This week we’ll get the groove going with “Cracks and Creases” from Serengeti before diving into sweet melodies from Dion, Dream Girl, Mesita, Hop Along, and others before wrapping up with “Airport Bar” from Martin Courtney. Rock! Have suggestions? As always,…

Created in 1998 by the now-defunct Tiger Electronics to be a demon furball companion to children, the infamous Furby saw widespread success before being repurposed by countless modders. Among others, Zach Levine, an electronics enthusiast at howchoo.com, has taken a 1998 Furby and outfitted it with some modern upgrades. He replaced the original Furby’s processor with a Raspberry Pi to run Amazon’s Alexa, all while using the robot’s motor to track Alexa’s spoken words to make the new, and improved “Furlexa”. Dialing things back a bit, an unmodified Furby is made up of a resin-covered microprocessor, a pretty horrible camera and speaker combo, infrared and light sensors, and a single…

If you’re a SolidSmack regular around here (and let’s be honest—you probably are), then you’re no doubt familiar with one of our all-time favorite ‘garage inventors’, Colin Furze. The five-time Guinness World Record Holder and YouTube’s undisputed king of crazy inventions have kept millions of viewers entertained with off-the-wall concepts that are both insane and functional—from The World’s Fastest Pram to a working Hoverbike. In total, his video process journals have earned him nearly 5 million YouTube subscribers and a staggering 450 million views. Now, Furze wants to inspire a younger generation to find their own inner-wackiness through invention with his new (and first) book, This Book Isn’t Safe. With…

At first glance, the Velux Cabrio looks like an absurdly large window. It could even pass as a solar panel. But see it in action, and you’ll soon realize why its size seems so ridiculous. Just take a look at this video: Simply put, the Velux Cabrio is an ingenious window design that converts into a balcony when the user wants to bring the outside world in. The top half of the window fashions into a roof while the lower half extends out with room for one or two people. Multiple windows can be arranged side by side to form an even bigger ‘balcony’. The window’s ThermoTechnology is said to…

Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Each Monday, we’ll link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you. Be sure to check in each Monday morning for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight from the source of your favorite homegrown ‘Smack.…