A couple of months ago, I left my day job to give myself the freedom to explore my curiosities and pursue some nagging, deep rooted – but altogether indefinite – ideas. The best way I can describe it is that it feels like there is some rope tied around my waist pulling me forward, and…
Justin Mrazik is a Bay Area-based industrial designer who chooses to work in wood because of the life and warmth that it brings to everyday objects. The life and warmth his products exude can be felt with one visit to his kitchen. The small wooden spice shelf. The salt serving spoon. Kitchen Utensil I prototypes in each drawer. A hand-turned…
Although IKEA products have become synonymous with various levels of hackability (see here, here and here), the company has (unsurprisingly) been yet to celebrate the “IKEA Hack” movement under their own brand, at least until now. Back in 2013, the Swedish house wares giant started a project along with IDEO, Lund University’s School of Industrial…
In an age of touchscreen devices and virtual reality headsets, it’s not too often when contemporary design looks back towards the Ice Age for inspiration – however London-based artist and designer Kentaro Yamada is anything but conventional. Previously, Yamada has created everything from an upside-down frozen aluminum pyramid to a software-generated sound installation that translates…
With a base price of $845,000 (yes, that’s before any options), Porsche’s 918 Spyder hybrid supercar is certainly not an everyday cruiser that most would expect to see on their daily commute. As a matter of fact, the company is only planning on producing 918 of them this year alone worldwide. But perhaps what the…
Since finding crowdfunding success on Indiegogo in April of last year, the design team behind Amsterdam-based Dick Moby Sunglasses have showed no signs of slowing down. The team, which consists of designers Tim Holland and Robbert Bettink, met while studying together in Amsterdam and came up with the original idea of sustainable eyewear while on…
When it comes to smartphone photography, few tools offer as much flexibility and class as a selfie stick. The telescoping sticks – which are designed to extend the distance of a phone from a user’s body in order to capture a wider field of view – have been taking over tourist destinations and the purses…
Often referred to by experts as the M2 Generation, there’s no limit to the amount of time kids aged 6 to 10 will spend playing with apps on various multimedia devices including smartphones and tablets. With this in mind, the designers behind the Hackaball have developed an ingenious learning tool that helps teach kids the…
Last time we checked in with self-described “Stuffmaker” Mac Premo, the Brooklyn-based multimedia artist, videographer and designer was waxing philosophical about why he creates and why “(being) the arbiter of good stories is to live forever”. Since then, the 7-time New York Emmy® Award-winning Promo has been focusing on a different kind of project that…
You would think that for as long as wood has been around, its various possibilities and forms within its natural state would have been exhausted by now – not unlike various pop music melodies. However every now and again, we’re reminded of just how many more possibilities are out there that takes the old and…
Somewhere amongst the cat pictures, reaction gifs and weight loss photos, crowdsourced bulletin board and news site Reddit is capable of churning out some rather interesting show and tell design-related stories. Among others we’ve seen include a ‘husband of the year’ candidate who fabricated a race-ready bicycle for his competitive racer wife from scratch as…
Formed in 2008 by a group of friends from New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo, Kinfolk Bicycles was born out of the designers’ need to experience a certain type of product that hadn’t been built yet. In their case, it was a well-crafted, handmade bicycle. Combining their experience from a variety of disciplines, the group…
Having been inspired by natural elements for their new collection of wooden toy designs, product design, graphic design and architecture studio Vrtíška Žák have reduced common and traditional wooden children’s toys into their most simple forms with the minimalist WOO toy collection. The collection, whose name is derived from both a play on the word…
As far as ‘Behind the Design’ and DIY videos go, whoever is operating behind the scenes at Inspire to Make has done an exceptional job of crafting and communicating the steps for unique projects without overestimating people’s short YouTube attention span these days. In fact, this recently-released video of Inspire to Make’s latest DIY project…
Every so often, a ‘making of’ video comes along that stands out amongst the pack with wit and charm. In most cases, the videographer went beyond the slow-motion “sparks-flying, sweat-dripping” scenes of workshop fabrication to bring some more narrative into the context. Or, they bring in a a puppet to make things more interesting. The…
Aiming to be a creative lab focusing on nurturing young talent, Milan-based Incipit (“the beginning” in Latin) manufacturers and distributes a collection of home accessory products through collaborating with up-and-coming designers. Founded in 2013 by Roberto Hoz and Marta Bernstein, the company helps support young designers by sharing skills and best business practices through a…
It’s hard to imagine that back in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, some vehicle manufacturers were building their cars with wood frames (nobody cared too much about safety standards back then). The long defunct Packard Motor Car Company was one of those who touted ‘Luxury’ using wooden frames. A series of silent films posted…
After earning a degree in architecture and specializing in industrial design, Ferrari’s Chief of Design Flavio Manzoni began his design career in 1993 working at FIAT’s Lancia Design Center. In only eight short years, Manzoni’s talents allowed him to rise through the ranks to become the chief designer of the FIAT Group Design Center. With…
Previously, SolidSmack reported on the Sense ‘Smart Sleeping System’ that launched on Kickstarter a few weeks ago. The well-priced $99 sleep management system aims to ‘combine the insight of your sleep patterns with the data of the environment in your bedroom, including noise, light, temperature, humidity and particles in the air’. In an age where…
Originally founded as Race Productions NV by frame builder and painter Jochim Aerts in 1990, Ridley Bikes have been a market leader in creating high-performance racing bikes for some of the world’s most elite cyclists. Known for their strong alliances with their teams, the Ridley design and development team works closely with riders each season…
Built over two years by working late nights and weekends, Ugmonk’s story is truly an inspiration for those looking to get their side projects out into the world. Started by Jeff Sheldon one month after graduating college and soon after starting a full-time design job, the Ugmonk brand was born out of blood, sweat and…
Still one of the most popular watches for surfers, the Nixon Supertide features pre-programmed tide information for over 270 beaches through the year 2023, a 48 hour future tide, a heat timer, as well as the more common alarm and light functions for when it’s time to ditch the waves for some grub. The custom…
Hold the Cheetos and fruit snacks! The average child throws away an estimated 55 lbs of food a year from school lunches…and we’re pretty sure that the majority of that is damaged food (smashed sandwiches?) or food that isn’t being served in its optimum state (who wants cold tomato soup?). Needless to say, fresh food…
Founded in Sheffield, England in 1902 (also the birthplace of stainless steel), Ernest Wright and Sons has been churning out some of the best scissors and shears in the world for everybody from professional tailors to barbers and everything in between. Unlike mass-produced offerings such as the iconic Fiskars Orange-Handled Scissors, each pair of blades…
When it comes to creating innovative products for musicians, leave it up to the industrial designers who are musicians themselves to solve some of the more infuriating problems of traveling with musical equipment. Such is the case with Portland, Oregon-based industrial designer Patrick Triato, vocalist/guitarist for the band Bears. Along with fellow Portland industrial designer…
Talk to any well-groomed gentleman who uses a straight razor to shave and he’ll tell you that once he chose to go with a straight razor, there was no going back. Aside from a closer shave, the age-old process of lathering up shave cream, wiping off the blade, and working with a potentially lethal tool…
I know the SolidSmack readership is filled with software-cranking, Oboe-loving instrument aficionados. And, on such a sunny/cloudy/wintery/summery afternoon as this, there’s nothing that you all like more than to see an intricate making-of video that take seemingly simple parts and shows just how complex a process making them can be. This one, in particular, is…
I bet, next to those dusty engineering and design textbooks on the shelf, you have a few picture books that have led to endless inspiration since you were a child. No? A comic book? Dilbert? *cringe* Nothing? Well, perhaps you had a favorite as a child, There Are Rocks in My Socks! or Where the…
I’ve got a soft, gooey spot for vintage designer chairs. Mostly, just for looking at them though, thinking, “That looks like a chair I could sit in with a pipe, a tumbler of scotch and an expensive looking mustache.” The Eames chair is exactly one of those types of chairs. It’s manufactured at the Herman…