Although blow molding is a highly developed molding technology that’s been around since the late 1800’s to create hollow parts (such as plastic bottles) with uniform wall thicknesses, few have ever thought to use an actual blown-up animal balloon as a final material choice. Yet, for Seoul-based industrial designer Seungjin Yang, the use of balloons was critical for translating his childhood memories into usable furniture designs capable of supporting an average human. For his recent ‘Blowing Series’ furniture collection, the designer created a variety of chair designs in different shapes and sizes using the same balloons used for creating balloon animals. Once the chairs were completed, Yang proceeded to cover…

With tens of billions of LEGO bricks made each year, it’s no surprise that there are nearly 4,200 different elements in the LEGO range with a variety of different colors and decorations – a number that brings the total number of possible LEGO brick combinations to nearly 10,000. Inspired to make sense of at least some of these possible combinations, LEGO enthusiast Jeremy Moody recently took it upon himself to develop a chart of all of the different LEGO colors that the Danish company has ever produced – using the actual bricks themselves. In total, 182 individual LEGO colors are featured on the periodic table–like chart, and the complete collection includes…

Don your favorite bathrobe, cream that coffee and get comfortable with this weekend’s SolidSmack Weekend Reader. This week we saw everything from an ingenious solution for replacing plastic water bottles, Lenovo’s unveiling of their ThinkPad P40 Yoga Workstation Tablet, Adam’s thoughts on Autodesk University 2015, a camping tent inspired by a mollusk shell, and more… So lay back, relax and take a load off while reading the top ten stories on SolidSmack this past week. Oh and uh…don’t forget to shed some much-needed sunlight on your face, too.

Although it may not have the field of view that many were originally hoping for, Microsoft’s HoloLens is still no less of an amazing tool on the horizon for many involved in hardware development. Earlier this year, SolidSmack reported on ten reasons why the HoloLens could change product design and the way that consumers interact with products in a mixed reality world. So far, many of those predictions have remained true. Soon after the January announcement of the HoloLens, Autodesk teamed up with the Silicon Forest tech giant on a joint project by the name of ‘FreeForm’. The proof of concept project, which was modeled after the existing modeling capabilities…

In the history of sci-fi pop culture, only a few objects have ever elevated to ‘legendary’ status. Of course, the hoverboard from Back to the Future comes to mind – not to mention the Nike Air Mag shoes worn by Marty McFly while cruising on the board. But although it may not be technologically possible yet, the lightsaber from Star Wars takes the cake as one of the most iconic and celebrated objects in pop culture, ever. While all of the DIY lightsaber projects, officially licensed toys and even Kickstarter projects have helped breathe new life into the famed movie prop, we’ve been yet to see the lightsaber go through a…

It was nearly a decade ago when the idea of producing physical objects on a desktop started to pick up steam – both for the object creators themselves and the consumers who use them. Today, it’s hit the mainstream and anybody with a fistful of cash can walk into anywhere from Best Buy to Barnes and Noble and walk out with a new 3D printer, go home, power it up, download a physical object, and print within an hour. So naturally we ask, what’s next? With the goal of helping electrical engineers, designers, and inventors design circuit boards without ever leaving their desk, a group of nanotechnology graduates from the…