Documenting an industrial design process can be a challenging task when your primary focus is on getting the actual product design out of the door and into the hands of your client or manufacturer in time. Whether the documentation is for a student portfolio or for a world-class design firm, the combination of research data,…

Over the past 30 years, the landscape of video controller design has been nearly just as colorful as the varieties of game options that they are controlling. When comparing the simplistic directional pad and two-button layouts of some of the earliest controller designs to the more ‘smart’ (and complicated) designs seen in today’s Playstation and…

Did you know that up until the early 20th century, it was mostly women who wore a wristwatch? The concept of wearing watches on the wrist dates back to the earliest 16th Century version that was crafted by Robert Dudley in 1571 and given to Elizabeth I of England as an arm watch. Men mostly…

In the video age, getting behind the design thinking and production process of many great thinkers has never been easier, and online file transfer service WeTransfer has added even more great videos to this movement with the launch of their Creative Class video series. Aimed at illustrating how some of the most influential people in…

With a jury of twenty-four established designers who have ‘been there and done that’, taking home one of the 176 trophies in the annual IDSA IDEA Awards is certainly no easy feat. Between Fifty-Three’s stylus and new start up PillPack’s innovative take on the prescription medication user experience (designed in partnership with IDEO), the IDEA…

With both an impressive knowledge base of how industrial plastic manufacturing machines work as well as his desire to repurpose plastic waste, Dutch designer Dave Hakkens has created an open source microfactory concept that he hopes will change the way we produce everyday plastic goods. Precious Plastic explores how plastic waste can be shredded and…

NYCxDesign has proven to be a success yet again this year with events ranging from the NE IDSA conference focusing on ‘Design It. Build It. Fund It.’ to the ‘Meet the Makers’ series held at Brooklyn’s Industry City. Of all the events that have been taking place this month, the WantedDesign NYC exhibition is perhaps…

In case you missed the release last week of MODO 801, there were some announcements made that might be of interest to all you product designers who might still be on the fence with jumping into MODO or not. The new 801 release of the powerful modeling and rendering tool aims to make working with…

We’re always talking about the future of design, the future of technology, the future of MAKING. In a world where LEGOs have become a prototyping tool for building robots in your living room, a world where you can carry a 3D printing pen in your pocket, how do we find the next big thing? MakerGalaxy…

For thousands of years, casting aqueous substances and drying them into usable forms has been a core technique in manufacturing, and one of the greatest advancements made in human technology. From ceramics and metals to glass and plastics, countless methods of casting have been invented to exhume objects from molds over the millennia. But unfortunately,…

Last month we reported on the opening weekend of the new Hatch Live tournament—a sort of Cut+Paste-like competition with the end goal of having a unique, manufacturable design. Well, after a month’s worth of tournament weekends, this past weekend saw the championship round between talented designers Wil Rodriguez-Joglar and Nelson Ayala as they battled out…

There’s been a lot of hype surrounding the (RED) charity auction curated by Jony Ive and Marc Newson—particularly in regards to their one-of-a-kind desk and Leica camera designs. Well, it all goes down tomorrow (Saturday 11/23) at Sotheby’s in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. In preparation for the auction, Sotheby’s held a limited-engagement exhibition to show…

Few industrial designers have branded themselves with flamboyant tastes and pink outfits, yet Karim Rashid has created a solid name for himself as a multi-disciplinary designer who has worked with everybody from Alessi to Coca Cola and Dupont to Dirt Devil. With his creative direction guiding everything from product design to branding and even fine…

Founded in 2006 by Bono and Bobby Shriver to engage the private sector in raising both awareness and funds to help eliminate global diseases such as AIDS, (RED) has been a popular fundraising model that allows companies to offer unique products within their own brand that also help support the initiative. It would take a…

It is no secret that high-fashion is like history; it is known to repeat itself. While the latest fads might not always be carbon-copies of their predecessors, the roots of modern style are often painfully obvious to those with an observant eye—and eyeglasses themselves might be the perfect example of this. With the recent rise…

With all the recent talk surrounding Apple’s iOS 7 redesign and the push for creating better harmony between software and hardware design, it’s easy to overlook an industry that has been tackling this design problem for years: the digital camera industry. Nikon’s design department recently released a video that takes us behind the scenes of…

Perhaps the most widely-respected industrial designer of all time, Dieter has inspired thousands—if not millions of designers with his perspectives on ‘good design’. From Apple’s Jony Ive to budding design school students, the Ten Principles of Good Design is just as relevant today as it was in the early 1980’s when Dieter began to recognize…

What’s slightly less/more awesome than driving cool cars? Drawing them. Making sound effects while turning red and eventually passing out just adds to the enjoyment. I Draw Cars can help. A project started by product designer Matt Marrocco and car designer Adam Hubers, it brings their car sketching passion and knowledge to you via the…

Kick the wads of paper away from your coworker’s head and pick him up off the floor. It’s ok to slap him if he’s still unconsciousness, because he’s about to thank you for showing him a way to go through massive amounts of design iterations with fewer convulsive reactions or concussions. Last week, we discussed…

Many of us are plugged directly into the monitor, starting and ending the design process within the confines of a virtual 3-dimensional prototype. Rubbish. What if that was only a small part in the middle of the entire process? The Futures Channel slaps the spectacles off the idea of 3D CAD and rapid prototyping with…

I’ve always wanted to let up for a few minutes, take a break from marking all over my face and arms and really get into the nitty-gritty of making my 3D sketch shapes look magnificent. Fortunately, Spencer from IDSketching is here to show us how to do just that. With the following video, he makes…

Out of the list of awesome things you’ve accomplished, including bathing a kitty, chopping celery and catching a pineapple in your mouth, there’s some other things as a human being, and even more, as a design engineer, you should be able to do. If not, you’re doomed. In response to a guest post here on…

Well, gone are the days where you just go off willy, nilly and make a samurai costume out of hole-ridden, lead containers for nuclear waste. That’s right, the dems in the US Senate and House are busy correcting your mis-use of material for electronic component design by drafting up legislation that will provide grants via…

If you could shake yourself into a dazzling display of idea-producing power, you would still have just that, an idea. Some get lucky and have a prototype, but mostly we just sit on our ideas. C. Sven Johnson is going one step further with the 100K Stray Toasthed Pull Toy project. He has taken an…

Guest Post by Matthew Loew of DAXCON I realize this will be a controversial subject, but I am compelled to raise awareness of how rare a breed the Design Engineer is in industry. The Design Engineer may be headed for extinction (at least in the US). There is a HUGE difference between a design engineer…

Now look, there’s no reason to suddenly start flailing about. Even if you’re being eaten alive by mutant aphids there are options that will help distract you enough to, not only, improve your CAD modeling skills, but escape the mental torture that goes along with being ravaged by unfriendly insects. You may be out of…

I’m happy to say that Industrial Design is alive and well in the Social Media sphere due in part to a select few Industrial Designer bringing things together to let everyone else know what’s up. Industrial Designers around the world are getting organized on Twitter. The coolest thing about it? They’re not just using it…

It may not be enough that you know how to sort desktop folders, write a cordial email or sketch a straight line, you may actually need to know some software that allows others to see what’s going on in the recesses of your analytically-primed imagination. There are hundreds of software apps that help Industrial Designers…