Although there are plenty of iconic furniture designs that are so recognizable that even non industrial designers can easily call them by name, few are as recognizable as the original Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, which was released in 1956 by designers Charles and Ray Eames. The chair and ottoman set, which is the result of Charles and Ray’s investigations into molding plywood and a desire to improve upon existing lounge chairs, became an icon nearly immediately when it was released and continues to be sold extensively around the world. Inspired by the unmistakable molded plywood and black aesthetic, Danish speaker company Davone’s Davone Ray-S speaker set seamlessly combines the…

Today we’re taking our pet baby octopi out of the tank, lathering on the sunscreen and launching SmackTalk. SmackTalk is the new platform to discuss Design, Engineering and all matters of related awesome. We’ve wanted a place for people to start discussions and always thought the conversation should be part of the story. More often than not, the conversation around the story is more interesting… until someone posts a funny gif and it all goes completely downhill. Still, we would rather have the funny gifs than no place to talk about it. We bought MCadForums to make this happen, but ran into hurdles integrating it with SolidSmack. So now, we’re…

Time for another round of apps that cover the spectrum of your beloved mobile device, be it iPhone, Android or Windows! The Weekly App Smack is the best of design and productivity apps (and maybe a couple of fun ones, too) for the busy design or engineering professional and this week we have a list sure to make you more efficient. This week we have a new social media network from Casey Neistat that focuses on authenticity for iPhone, a couple of new solutions for better curating ‘your world’ with custom maps, a new launch screen for your favorite Android device and more… Do you have an app suggestion that…

Since they started coming up in CAD in the Cloud discussions earlier this year, Frame (fra.me) has shown no signs of slowing down their pursuit of allowing users to put any Windows application in their own personal Cloud. Among other reasons why the platform has been of interest is because it will allow users of CAD software offerings that aren’t currently Cloud-supported – such as SolidWorks or Solid Edge – the ability to work from any internet-connected device in the world without being tethered to a particular workstation. Today, company CEO Nikola Bozinovic (you can read our earlier interview with Bozinovic here) has just sent word to SolidSmack that Frame…

It’s no secret that cardboard is among one of the most effective materials for building prototypes, yet the material rarely ever moves past prototyping stage for obvious reasons. Ernest Packaging, a nationwide custom packaging solution company that was started out of a Los Angeles garage in 1946, has been spending the past year pushing the limits of what’s possible with cardboard as a part of their Cardboard Chaos series. To date, the company has teamed up with fabrication experts including Signal Snowboards to develop a functional surfboard, a functional snowboard and pushbikes for children. While all of the designs have certainly tested the limits of what’s possible with the packaging…

As we move towards a more streamlined, always-anywhere, Cloud-connected computing experience however, it’s becoming more common for users to want to take their hardware into more demanding conditions outside of the air conditioned office … and when it comes to some of the best and most reliable portable workstation solutions that are ideal for industrial designers and mechanical engineers on the go, it’s hard to deny that Dell has consistently delivered over the years. Today, Dell announced their new Latitude 12 Rugged Tablet, the company’s first fully rugged Windows tablet designed for performance and reliability in harsh weather conditions including extreme cold, heat, rain. Of course, these design considerations also…