Have you ever wondered how people make sandcastles the size of small fortresses? Apart from time and the proper mix of sand and water, the biggest help comes from the tools they use. Most of them aren’t using those tiny plastic shovels you find at beach shops, but rather solid, industrial-grade tools you would find…

We all enjoy a good bike ride, and with modern smartphones providing you with a handheld GPS, it’s hard to get lost in a city or out in the wilderness. And with the dawn of 3D printed e-bikes with onboard GPS, who has to worry? But even with all the advances in technology, it’s still…

When you think of pillows, the first thing that comes to mind is lying down for a good snooze. A massive pillow fight is likely a close second. Pillow design, however, isn’t something that even seen necessary – stuffing, foam, or feathers sewn up in a sack, right? Yet, this pillow is design with ultimate…

If you like to go on leisurely hikes outdoors, chances are you’ve brought along some snacks for the trip. And while that’s by no means a bad thing, it always becomes a problem when you’ve finished said snacks and have no place to throw your trash. Some good Samaritans keep their trash in their bags…

While the idea of an illuminated helmet is as common as brakes and pedals on a bike, not all lighted helmets are the same when it comes to safety. For instance, it’s a bit surprising but very few helmets have front lights to help oncoming vehicles see their riders. Some have reflectors that reflect light…

Anxiety over recent events – and the pressure of having to work during said events – has caused us to turn a wide variety of spaces into a classy home-office. However, there’s one critical item to complete any work-intensive space. A speaker that provides just the right amount of ambient music to keep you concentrating…

We all know brushing your teeth is basic piehole cleanin’ hygiene. However, most of us forget one important part: flossing. And while rubbing a piece of string between your teeth may not hit the top of the fun charts, flossing is essential if you want your mouth to be free of the cavities, gingivitis, and…

While face masks may offer some protection from inhaling a nasty virus, personal protective equipment (PPE) like a face shield guard your entire face from coming into contact with touches, sneezes, wood chips and much more. Now, you may have seen list of PPE supplies or some wearing full face shields to protect people from…

Pendant style overhead lamps can light up a wide area but sometimes they tend to be too bright, especially when you’re directly under them. Some occasions call for a nice muted light to create the right ambiance, like during movie night, or when you are looking to set the mood for a romantic evening with…

We’ve all been there before: your package arrives in the mail and you have nothing to open it with. It’s times like these we reach for the closest sharp object in the vicinity: a pair of scissors, a letter opener, an untrimmed fingernail. In my case? You guessed it. A Swiss Army knife. However, the…

Now I’m not a smoking man, but even I can see the use of a pocket lighter for various situations. Apart from lightin’ up, a portable flame lets you illuminate dark areas, start a survival fire, or provide quick cauterization of a small wound if you happen to get jabbed in the middle of nowhere.…

Truth be told, I never quite understood e-bikes. I mean, why have an electric-powered bike when a traditional bike provides exercise and less manufacturing and electronic waste? Then again, used as a daily commuter, any extra power would be welcome. Plus – and this is a big bonus – an e-bike helps you avoid public…

It’s hard to take a break between long computer sessions, whether it’s because you’re “in the zone”, finishing a personal project or slammin’ pixels for project deadline. But with MagnetCubes, I think we’ll find ways to jump off the computer an hour or five for some good ol’ fashion play. MagnetCubes Modular Magnetic Blocks To…

We love toys. And when you add wood and puzzles into the mix, you’ve got a winning combination. MōFU is a line of poseable animal puzzle toys designed by Yoshiaki Ito, an award-winning, Brooklyn-based designer and craftsman. The toys are inventive, dang cute, and now available in a new Kickstarter campaign. Yoshiaki developed the toy…

Or maybe I should say, you’ll want to buy it. If it was just a $59 dollar 3D printer… maybe. Or if it just was a giant LEGO block… maybe. But a $59 dollar, LEGO compatible 3D printer… SOLD. And that’s what the 3DFORT printer is. “3DFort 3D Printer represents a whole new kind of…

Despite giant leaps in smartwatch technologies, the mechanical watch still manages to be a staple accessory that people continue to use every day. Currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, Rotate takes things one step further by having users assemble their own mechanical watch from scratch. Completely devoid of batteries (because that’s what a modular watch is),…

I sat down with Derek Roberts, the man behind the MillRight CNC company. Derek is an entrepreneur, tinkerer, designer, visionary and guy with a cool southern accent. He goes over everything, from how he got started, to MillRight’s first product, starting a business, running a business, manufacturing challenges and, oh yes, their new desktop CNC product,…

After their first Kickstarter campaign proved a success, the young designers at orangered life have taken their 30° Ruler (cleverly taglined “One Ruler to Rule Them All”) and brought it to a whole new level: The 30° Ruler 2.0 is still very much like its predecessor. Instead of a flat ruler, this one is angled at a…

You may have built the London Tower Bridge using LEGOS three times over, but having a structure made of solid bricks just doesn’t have the same *oomph* as a real bridge with cables keeping their towers from collapsing on each other. The Mola Structural Kit 3 is the third incarnation of Mola’s modular systems which…

With all the stress and grind of being a designer, pondering over the next brief, your hands need something to play with– to fidget, move and make you snap and doodle, all at one go. Possible? Yes, with the MAGNETIPS Magnetic Gel Pens, all of this is possible. Designed as gel pens – 20 shades…

Sustainability is the burning hot topic in many industries, and hospitality is is in the hot seat. QSRs (quick service restaurants) are shoveling food into our mouths and plastic cutlery out in trash bags and hotels won’t clean your room unless you absolutely request/demand it. But, back to the QSR sore spot. If you eat…

One of the hardest things to make when sketching a blueprint, model, or drawing is the circle. How is it possible after years of doodles in school, practice in college, and use in work that drawing a flawless circular is so difficult? Outside the few who may be able to nail all 360 degrees, the…

Kids these days will never know how good they have it. While nothing beats the adventure of playing outside and getting hands dirty in the mud, this generation also gets to pair the outdoors with a seemingly endless roster of “smart” toys that foster 21st-century skills—toys like the Chatterbox AI Speaker Bot. As the Kickstarter…

As production companies get more creative with materials in an effort to reduce and reuse waste, more thought is being put into how materials can be used. The New Raw has research labs which allow city denizens to craft recycled furniture, skateboards are being turned into kitchen knives, and now… we have portable speakers made…

We’ve seen our fair share of modular desk organizers; each with their own unique features and gimmicks designed to make organizing your desk an easier and more personalized experience. So what makes the Stealtho Organizer stand out from the rest? Where most people nowadays use their laptops and phones for the majority of their work,…

Toys for little girls have come a long way. Instead of gangly, mobility-limited figurines with zero capabilities, young ladies can now opt for an awkward, less mobility-limited, learning, talking, facial expression recognizing robot friend to do their bidding. Its name is Little Sophia. Mixing A.I. technology with traditional toy design, this robot doll is a…

As someone who works from home, I can attest to dumping my belongings on my laptop like a food tray if I ever decide to move between rooms. When the working location I’m moving to is outside of the house, I simply throw all that stuff in a bag. It’s a messy way to go…

Though many don’t mind a cluttered work area, there are a few who can’t resume working unless their desk resembles the pinnacle of orderliness. The Re:ease desk organizer was made for these select neat freaks. Created by product designer Marc Stüber and engineer Laurent Hartmann, this modular desk organizer is made up of 6 compact…

Much like LEGOs, modern modular design kits contain various pieces that let the user build various structures. Desks, shelves, pot holders – depending on the kit’s materials, the user can make an assortment of things from a cleverly-designed family of attachable components. TikA by TiKA Lab are modular kits comprised mainly of different-sized connectable wood…

They may only look like letters on a sign to you, but sign painters play a critical role in advertising a company’s trade. Take a look at the Disney logo and how it immediately makes you think of Mickey Mouse and his cast of pals. Or the Coca-Cola logo. Noel B. Weber has been in…

In possibly his oddest/coolest video yet, designer Eric Strebel breaks down the making of a one-of-a-kind toilet paper holder. But unlike the version you have at home, which has no technology whatsoever, this rectum-cleaning receptacle holds a couple of smartly-designed magnet discs to make pulling the right amount of toilet paper squares a one-handed process.…

We talk a lot about 3D printers, but most use plastic or resin materials. Rarely do we have the pleasure of seeing a ceramic 3D printer which uses honest-to-goodness earthen clay to print an object. The Cerambot does exactly that – it takes your standard Kaolinite clay material and allows you to builds shapes, sculptures…

Despite it being used often in manufacturing, carbon isn’t the most biodegradable material; meaning, it will take years to decompose that excessive carbon fiber waste from a multitude of design projects these days. Further, recycling carbon fiber isn’t necessarily an easy process either. Because the mixture of resin and carbon is so stiff, it becomes…

Three years ago, we covered the Ghostkube – paper engineer Erik Åberg’s origami-inspired creation made from wooden cubes of different shapes. Instead of using scraps of square paper though, the Ghostkube is composed of small, interlocking wooden cubes designed to move together in unison. The result is one “master” cube–a kinetic sculpture which can be…

The only kind of pens that you’d like to pass down from one generation to another, are in the range of the expensive Cartier and Mont Blanc kinds. Definitely not falling into this bracket, is the ManualPen as it’s not super expensive and neither glam-ed up with celebrity endorsements. However, it holds the distinction of…

Three words for ya. Camping. Is. Fun. Besides the heat, the cold, the rain, the wasps, ticks, poison ivy, and animals that would devour you given the chance, it’s one of the most enjoyable experiences you’ll have. Prepping and lugging the necessities into the great outdoors can present some other challenges. Did you remember your…

With more houses becoming almost sentient with their built-in A.I.s and voice-activated functions, it can feel a tad creepy coming back home to find some invisible guardian controlling your personal living space. That said, mui is attempting to bring some of that analog connectivity back into the digital home. It isn’t a hovering know-it-all like…

Quick history lesson: László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian photographer, painter, sculptor, and all-around artist who helped revolutionize the art scene during the early 20th century. Think of him as a sort of Leonardo Da Vinci of his time, if you will; he took photos, built buildings, designed products – if it involved any form of…

Would you say bottle openers are useless? Some would… until they find themselves in a situation which needs one. But since most bottle openers are single purpose and slightly more useful than a rock, not too many folks carry one on their person. But, what if it had more uses? When designer David Enrico came…

Chances are you have a ton of plastic containers at home with even more plastic lids that never fit the particular container you want. Though plastic containers are sturdier than plastic bags, they aren’t very space-efficient. Why not blend the two to create the best of both worlds? Such is the premise behind Zip Top…

Believe it or not, quite a number of people still use analog cameras. Whether it be for the nostalgia or the thrill of knowing the number of shots you have are finite, analog cameras still have a place in this digital, selfie-taking world. What is a Pinhole Camera? A pinhole camera is a type of…

In this era of near-all-day-long screen time for many, issues like eye strain, headaches, and poor vision are becoming the norm. If you aren’t wearing glasses or contacts already, you may need them soon enough if you’re not glancing away every now and again. In the meantime, you can also make the jump over to…

Only the most gullible of people would believe hypnosis works, but dang it anyways, it sure is alluring to see a bunch of swirls rotate in place. The Mezmoglobe is in no way a portable hypnosis apparatus. Composed of aerospace grade aluminum rods, these 54 mm spheres have stainless steel bearings inside them which allow…

Perhaps you wouldn’t simply hand your young kid his or her own iPhone to play Fortnight all day every day, but would you stop them from having their own mobile phone if they had to learn how to build it from scratch? What about if they had to code their own apps? The MAKERphone may…

All of us were told off from drawing on the walls as children for a lot of reasons. Maybe it’s because we couldn’t reach high enough for our parents to appreciate our work. Or perhaps they couldn’t see art if it was right in front of their faces. Or it could just be the uncleanable,…

It doesn’t necessarily take a car nut to stop and stare at a cool vintage car. In fact, it can easily become an instant conversation-starter; a timeless way to break the ice. This attraction to the classics is exactly what watchmaker Willer Chronometers is going for. Inspired by old-school sportscars and the Mile Miglia open-road…

Some people say a design is at its best when it’s at its simplest, but I’m pretty sure the statement doesn’t apply to everything. Take the NU:RO for example. Created by Anton Repponen of the Anton & Irene New York Studio, the analog watch is a heaven sent for minimalists but may be a bit…

When it comes to side projects, hours become days, days become weeks, and weeks can often become months or years. But what if getting a minimum viable product created could happen on a Saturday…assuming you aren’t building a flying car? Many successful entrepreneurs have been touting the benefits of the 1-Day MVP—a one-day, all-out sprint…

Now I personally don’t carry around a portable speaker. Not because they’re heavy and totally inferior to headphones (though those are pretty valid points), but because I rarely come across a mini speaker which doesn’t sound like it’s blasting five layers of static along with what it’s supposed to be playing. Long story short: there…

It would seem like an impossible endeavor to top NASA engineer Lonnie Johnson’s Super Soaker water gun, but a team of German engineers may have taken the water weapon crown with their Spyra One- a water rifle that fires ‘water bullets,’ meant to improve accuracy and distance. Whereas the Super Soaker requires you to fill…