I absolutely love design that is so simple, but so massive in the functionality it provides. In general, a shelf is just about the most simple, practical addition to any room you can get – I have no idea why we don’t just have shelves for walls instead of walls. Too far? Maybe. But a nice looking shelf isn’t limited to living on a wall. At least, not any more. The Float Shelf is the third successful Kickstarter project from Steve King and Prism Design. The Float Shelf is exotically minimal, but if you’re an owner of an iMac or Apple display, you’ll see the practicality of it right away. At least, that’s what…
I’m looking at a secretive Israeli company called Fleximatter that seems to be developing an unusual 3D printing technology. The company has a website, but shows very little if any information on their technology. However, based on some brief research, it appears that: They are developing a new 3D printer suitable for industrial use The 3D printer is of large size of 800 x 800 x 900mm It’s using a plastic extrusion process They seem to have a method of coloring layers, which isn’t unique but is interesting for large scale objects The are attempting to (or perhaps have) patent an extruder design that enables high speed 3D printing “incredibly…
Presented by Here we are, 2016, and as you know, SolidSmack likes to look at what’s pushing product development ahead. Well, to look forward, it helps to look back… unless there’s a large bear, then you just want to skip the reminiscing and jump forward, hastily. We’ve got time, no bears, and a hefty dose of speculation that Autodesk is preparing something big for Fusion 360. So first, we’re going to look back at what set all this in motion. It seems like such a short time ago that Autodesk’s wee seed of Fusion 360 was planted, growing into a dense forest of cloud-driven modeling power in just a few…
You know that dream you have where you wake up and a robot is removing circuit boards from your chest and printing in new one? No? That’s just me? Well, BotFactory is the precursor to that eventuality, and their technology is so convincing that they just raised a $1M Seed Round of financing through New York Angels, with New York Angels Director Larry Richenstein joining BotFactory’s Board of Directors. BotFactory is a startup out of New York City and the team behind Squink, the first integrated desktop PCB factory. If you recall, they had huge success with their Kickstarter project, bringing in over $100,000 from 260 backers. Their machines are now on the market, available through their website…
From glass to cardboard, skaters today are ready to try just about anything to see if it can ollie with four wheels. But LEGO bricks? That’s a new one. With the goal of making an actual LEGO skateboard capable of human kickflips and pop shove-it’s, woodworker Peter Brown from the YouTube channel Shop Time recently gathered 250 LEGO bricks and a small bucket of epoxy resin to create what should most definitely be considered in a real-life LEGO movie, whenever that happens. https://youtu.be/CGk_O2jQB5Y The board, which was built for the “You Make It, We Skate It” YouTube series, holds up surprisingly well. https://youtu.be/NUmIjfbLnYA LEGOS. What can’t you make?
When it comes to designing toys, it should come as little surprise that sometimes kids themselves are the best designers. After all, who else knows the target user the best? Which is why for their latest collection of stuffed toys, IKEA eschewed hiring a professional (boring adult) toy designer in favor of crowdsourcing designs from kids around the world. With a staggering 52,000 entries (try fitting those on your whiteboard), the company somehow managed to dwindle the toy design submissions down to just ten for their Sagoskatt (Swedish for ‘mythical treasure’) collection launching this holiday season. While stuffed animals may not be the most exciting products in the world, the…