Exvacator. Excavator. Mycrotocle. Motorcycle. Chaty. Yacht. When playing Scrabble, or even Words with Friends for that matter, the act of untangling anagrams is half the fun. But what if these brain-twisting anagrams existed as real world objects? JVG, a Madrid-based CGI studio, recently asked themselves that question as part of a design and rendering exploration appropriately titled “Scrabble”. Like the jumbled words themselves, the vehicles depicted in the series are vaguely familiar if you know where to look: Similar to sketching or modeling mechs and robots, design exercises that jumble multiple separate elements together into a unified form are among one of the most effective ways to stretch your design…

Colin Furze has already established himself up there among the craziest YouTubers, but the insane garage inventor always seems to have something even crazier to share with us. Earlier this week, the UK plumber-turned YouTube sensation managed to turn one of the simplest of things – a tea kettle – into something worthy of multiple emergency room visits: the JETTLE tea kettle. Using thermite – a pyrotechnic composition of metal powder fuel and metal oxide that can create bursts of high temperature in a small area – Furze attempts to make “instant tea”: https://youtu.be/mg3bFxdAZsY …and the making of: https://youtu.be/o7h530-IizU No word on how the tea tastes – frankly, we’re just glad he…

Along with Spencer Nugent, industrial designer and concept artists Scott Robertson has a special place at the top of our favorite design process educators list. Long before YouTube allowed educators to upload their tutorial videos, Robertson published a handful of design sketching DVDs through The Gnomon Workshop – DVDs that became so popular, they were difficult to keep on hand in design school libraries. These days, Robertson continues to produce design sketching videos – along with more in-depth books – while balancing more professional design projects. More recently, Art Station took the time to stop by Robertson’s Design Studio Press to talk more about his definition of industrial design, how it closely relates…

With so many cool things coming out each week, it can be hard to wade through all the rock-awesomeness. With ‘Cool Tools’, we’ve done the hard work for you. This week we saw a smart and modern update to the humble lunchbox, a new way to take 360º degree turntable photographs, an app that promises to DJ your entire party, how to turn your old laptop into a Chromebook and more… Ready? Let’s go! This week we look at: DESIGN Prepd Pack “An intelligently designed, beautifully crafted lunchbox and smart recipe app: Get Prepd and kickstart your healthier lifestyle…” Foldio360 “A smart turntable to easily create 360º images with a…

Despite having hundreds – if not, thousands – of significant and innovative changes happen underneath the hood over the past five decades, the distinctive silhouette of the Porsche 911 has largely remained the same. Regardless, the teardrop-shaped 911 still sits at the top of the list for car aficionados and noobs alike for its timeless mystique and accessible simplicity. More recently, the car nuts over at Donut Media put together an impressive animation that packs fifty years worth of Porsche industrial design into less than 90 seconds. “The evolution of the Porsche 911 has a rich history filled with innovation and has undergone continuous development though the basic concept has…

There are few things capable of sending one flying off the badassery scale, but setting land speed records on a motorcycle is certainly one of those things. When he broke not one but 76 land speed records on a motorcycle between 1929 and 1937, Ernst Henne effectively earned himself enough badassery to last into the afterlife – thanks to the talented designers and fabricators at Austin, Texas-based Revival Cycles. Recently, the handbuilt motorcycle shop – whose philosophy towards building is rooted in “the seamless blend of visual design with technical excellence” – unveiled their latest handmade masterpiece that is heavily influenced by Henne’s own motorcycles that were responsible for tearing up…