They may seem useless at first, but you can’t deny mobile device stands make up a rather quirky part of the consumer market. These hefty, often colorful accessories are for those who lack the extra appendages to hold their devices upright while doing something else. The Montelouro is no exception. Crafted by Rafael Fernández Sánchez…
You may look at the headline and ask, “Wait, what does he mean by 25 pieces of furniture from six pieces”? And to this, I say, “It’s easier if I just show you.” VARIA isn’t some math-defining furniture set, but rather set made from six pieces: 2 stools, 2 barstools (one with a removable cabinet…
In general, a good camping backpack should be lightweight, rugged, and fit properly—while luggage should be spacious, easily portable, and able to withstand the rigors of baggage handlers. A new design from Atlas Sabbatical combines the two in the form of Atlas- a backpack that transforms for different phases of a trip. Atlas Sabbatical designed…
The concept of remodeling a home constantly never dies out. From writing on your bedroom walls as a kid to choosing which fixtures to hang in your house as an adult, the appearance of your dwelling can tell visitors just how creative (or boring) you are as a person. Still, it can be quite costly.…
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…
Though 3D printing is imperative for many hardware developers, it’s usually the price of the printer that stops a lot of folks from purchasing their own—as opposed to using an office 3D printer or a 3D printing service. After all, a half-decent desktop 3D printer capable of keeping your tolerances tight can cost well over…
Young whippersnappers may not know this, but before cell phones could do everything from SMS messaging to your taxes, we had other pieces of hardware to do these tasks separately. Walkmans played music through cassette tapes, accountants did your taxes, and yes, even calculators had their own blocky, hefty designs. Lofree’s Digit Calculator pays homage…
Electronics these days are a dime a dozen. With large companies like Apple and Microsoft duking it out for consumers’ attention, smaller brands need to find creative ways to present themselves to stand out from your run-of-the-mill Beats By Dre. Mapuguaquén (which translates to ‘sound of the earth’ in South American Mapuche) isn’t the easiest…
Let’s face it: the days when learning for kids meant going outside to play are dwindling fast. Instead of experiencing the outside world for themselves (or reading about it in a classic paper bound book), children of this generation are more content to sit in front of a screen for hours on end and absorb…
Rather than forcing chunky peripherals on your head or hands via VR or AR, real holograms are the stuff of science fiction: true interactive displays which humans can interact with on a more personal level. The day when such a display would come to fruition was thought to be right up there with flying car…
Unless you’re some kind of overzealous morning person, no relationship has had a worse breakup than someone who is separated from his bed. Even though more and more folks are working from home, most still have to get their sorry butts out of bed to get the job done. Bedchill might change that. This isn’t…
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…
We’ve all had remarkable careers as air drummers at least some point in our lives. And no matter how musically incompetent we think we are, there’s always a beat sitting somewhere deep in our bones just ready to bust out. For folks who want to take their air drumming mastery a step further, the Oddball…
After a two year absence from Kickstarter, Joe Freedman is back with another way to make drawing (and math) easier. While his previous Cycloid Drawing Machine was more for professionals and art fans who wanted their drawings as intricate as the inside of a kaleidoscope, it wasn’t exactly cheap. Since he did all the laser…
Lots of toys allow kids to get creative and build their own designs. If you can count the number of times LEGO blocks have furthered a young ones’ learning capabilities, you have way too many fingers on your hands. But what if your kids (or you) want to build something a bit bigger, more practical,…
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…
We are just now entering summer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s too early to start thinking about getting outfitted with winter gear—especially if it means getting in early on a Kickstarter product. Developed by Ireland-based Rotation Design across two winters and tested in the harsh weather conditions in Iceland, the TUSK multi-functional snow shovel…
… Anything computer-related, that is. If the computer’s spiel has any truth to it, this may be one of the most powerful portable supercomputers out there. Powered by AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 SoC processors, the UDOO BOLT can handle everything from ginormous 3D CAD models to triple-A computer games. Depending on which version of the…
No, I didn’t make a mistake with the product’s spelling. Created by the father-son design team at Onehundred, Brdis are foldable bird feeders designed specifically for birds. So while humans have Ikea furniture to decipher and build, birds have Brdis (except humans have to make these for them as well). Crafted from .025” (6mm) foldable…
While the mission behind Kickstarter is great for “small guy” entrepreneurs with a good idea and enough chutzpah to launch it into the world via the internet, the ending result isn’t always so great for some project backers. Although the company doesn’t report an official number (nor would they), one only needs to do a…
Like clockwork, the number of designers, engineers, and makers who launch their projects on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo never ceases to amaze us. After all—doesn’t everybody love a great success story? For those curious to see if their side project ideas are worthy of a successful funding campaign, the best way to head…
It happens to the best of us: one minute you’re getting outside the car or house, the next you find yourself locked out with no option other than to break back in. While there isn’t a surefire solution to your ailing memory, you can at least start the habit of keeping your keys in places…
When you typically think of a CNC machine, you’re likely to envision a gigantic monstrosity that makes its home in a corner of a factory and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. I mean, you wouldn’t be wrong. The SwissMak Desktop CNC Machine, however, seeks to provide the same milling quality at a significantly lower…
We cover our fair share of Kickstarter projects here at Solidsmack. Some projects, like the heavy-duty COMBAR and the problem-solving Triggers Cards, are lucky enough to receive full funding and get shipped to their backers in a timely manner. Others? Well, not so much. But, as is the nature of the popular crowdfunding platform, there’s…
Before fidget cubes and fidget spinners were even a thing, man’s best cure for anxiety was the ordinary pen. Ever present in school and work, these cheap writing materials could be spun, flicked, clicked, and in some cases even chewed on to get rid of pent-up energy. Designer Shin Feng has the same fidgeting problem;…
Don’t get me wrong; while the tried-and-true Swiss Army Knife is great for opening UPS packages or the occasional toothpick, it doesn’t scream “heavy duty” in times when you might need it for anything beyond that. When faced with an outdoor scenario, chances are the little knife might break under the stress of cutting a…
While they likely aren’t to replace a roomful of clever creatives, Triggers Cards are certainly a brilliant tool when it comes to creative problem solving. The brainchild of creative director Alejandro Masferrer to be used as as an ideation tool, Triggers are designed to help ideate and run smooth brainstorming sessions with a series of…
Although humans have been throwing disc-shaped objects for centuries, it wasn’t until the 1930s when a couple was offered 25 cents for a cake pan they were throwing back and forth did the idea for the modern frisbee start to take shape. Today, the flexible polypropylene plastic disc is one of the most accessible and…
Since raising nearly $300K from backers on Kickstarter in 2016, documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit has been hard at work putting the finishing touches on Rams — the first feature documentary film covering the life and philosophies of design icon Dieter Rams. Hustwit, who same may know as the force behind the Helvetica, Objectified, and Urbanized design…
As far as desk toys go, just about everybody has a method of keeping their hands busy while waiting for that next great idea to strike. And for designers and engineers who appreciate precision machined metal, the Vortecon definitely deserves a spot in your desktop. Concieved of by-product designer Kristoph Krisjans, the Vortecon is a…
The folks at Paperwallet sure like keeping their wallets simple. Made from Tyvek (the material you find in a lot of packaging envelopes), these money holders are as thin as an anorexic paper yak, yet are able to hold a fat stack of bills and cards. Not only that, but they give upcoming artists a…
Whether it be music, movies, documents, or photos of your cat – everyone has something precious they keep as digital data. But let’s be real – that’s a lot of data you have to keep stored. Those photos of your cat alone might not even fit the 1TB hard drive you keep. Keeping backups of…
Like clockwork, the number of designers, engineers, and makers who launch their projects on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo never ceases to amaze us. After all—doesn’t everybody love a great success story? For those curious to see if their side project ideas are worthy of a successful funding campaign, the best way to head…
As someone who exercises daily, I know the hardest part of any workout is actually deciding to work out. People make a lot of reasons not to exercise, but one of the biggest excuses is they simply don’t have time to go to a gym. The xChain isn’t a portable gym (though that sounds like…
It goes without saying in any professional setting, but to look the part, it pays to play the part. In other words, you wouldn’t expect an engineer to show up at a design review with a plastic children’s pencil case. At least, this is what the folks over at Onehundred believe (we kinda do, to).…
We’ve all heard of project crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and RocketHub (among many others) to get our projects financed and manufactured. But what if your ‘project’ is a business or, to be more specific, a more robust company to produce multiple projects rather than one? This is the premise behind the new startup-investing platform known…
Like clockwork, the number of designers, engineers, and makers who launch their projects on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo never ceases to amaze us. After all—doesn’t everybody love a great success story? For those curious to see if their side project ideas are worthy of a successful funding campaign, the best way to head…
From custom hand-milled creations to 12-sided behemoths designed for roleplaying games, it’s impressive how far dice have come since they were first discovered in archeological digs and were estimated to be between 2800 to 2500BC. CoDi dice are a standard six-sided die CNC machined out of steel or brass (depending on preference) and come with…
When it comes to communicating design ideas effectively on paper, sketches that follow the basic principals of perspective are absolutely critical. While modern digital sketching tools including various iPad Pro apps can assist with perspective drawing, training your mind to see perspective in the analog world can be an entirely different beast to tackle. Aiming…
Like clockwork, the number of designers, engineers, and makers who launch their projects on crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo never ceases to amaze us. After all—doesn’t everybody love a great success story? For those curious to see if their side project ideas are worthy of a successful funding campaign, the best way to head…
Considering the vast amount of hackable devices out there, it’s safe to assume that hackers see vulnerable everyday people as easy targets. Certain companies even live off selling products that help keep customers’ digital data safe. Anti-viruses and RFID-lined wallets are some of the most common forms of digital safety, with RFID bags marking a…
It may look like a simple block of wood, but Nissha’s Mui does much more than sit on your wall as an aesthetically pleasing living room decoration; underneath that warm earthy texture is a touch-based internet-connected interactive display capable of displaying information and controlling IoT devices. The display is designed to match to your environment…
Despite the onslaught of VR 3D modeling apps, there aren’t a lot of ways to use a tablet and a spoon-like device to make the process more awkward. Fortunately, Kickstarter has brought us one. The Yeehaw Wand might look like any ol’ spoon of colorful mosaic tiles, but it’s actually an electronic sculpting paddle that…
File this one under strange but true. The DipClip is—for all you fast food chicken nugget fans out there—a sauce dip holder that clips into just about any type of vehicle AC vent to make your sauce dippin’ culinary delight a hands-free experience. Yes—just like the GPS or mobile phone mounts, BBQ, Ranch, and Honey…
The Migra surfboard bag is the brainchild of two friends who for more than fifteen years have travelled to remote islands in search of the perfect wave or “rip” as it’s call by surfers. While each destinations yielded a new thrill, the getting there left something to be desired. The biggest challenge they faced on…
A long time ago, I learned I could use my campfire charcoal to filter any questionable water sources if no other water was available. Not surprisingly, charcoal can have a profound effect on softening ordinary tap water, too. London-based design firm Black+Blum recently designed an interesting (BPA free) water bottle to take advantage of a…
4-Mation Is A Series of 3D Modular Zoetropes With Swappable Animations Before the introduction of film and movies, pre-animation devices like zoetropes presented a glimpse into the future of moving images. Using a series of paintings or drawings in different phases of animation, a person could paint the illusion of an object (or objects) in…
As you read this, you’re probably at your desk, killing time while waiting for the workday to end. But do you know just for how long you’ve been sitting down? How about your daily water intake for the day—or meals you’ve eaten? One of the more obscure applications of A.I., the SmartDesk 3 ISN’T a…
William Whiteley & Sons, a well-known scissor company in England, sure knows their stuff when it comes to cutting instruments. They’ve been around for 257 years; combining traditional handcrafting with current world technologies to make scissors capable of cutting through Kevlar (just take a look at their manufacturing process in the video below). Different scissors…
Less than a month ago, developer Astro HQ revealed a clever update to their upcoming Luna Display app that sneakily turned the iPad’s front-facing camera into a contextual button while keeping the UI clear of clutter. “While Apple is taking away buttons, we found a way to add one,” said the company. “Meet the Camera…