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There's a phrase that keeps surfacing in design circles lately: "life-centered design." It's not a rejection of human-centered thinking so much as a reframing of it, one that asks designers to zoom out and consider themselves as participants in living systems rather than engineers working on top of them.Inter-twined is a new California-based design collaborative and they are taking that idea seriously. Today, on Earth Day, they're inviting the broader design community to explore it with them.Starting April 22 and running through May 12, Inter-twined is hosting a free, public 21-Day Life-Centered Design Thinking Challenge: a daily journaling and sketching practice designed to help designers, students, and creative thinkers begin building a relationship between their wor

Here we see a couple blocks of Maple. But turn them just a bit, and they're something else. Admittedly this hits me more than you; where I live, I see cows every morning. So I was struck by how Swiss industrial designer Carlo Clopath so perfectly nailed the form of a cow, by making just a few cuts in a piece of Maple.Admittedly, Clopath picked the right animal to render. Seeing them up close, I'm always struck by how rectilinear cow

Canadian photographer and filmmaker Christopher Herwig has traveled the world, documenting what he encounters. One of his projects is "Trucks and Tuks," a visual record of the largest and smallest vehicles used on the Indian subcontinent.Elaborate, lavish paint j

Here's an example of how cultural norms can influence product design.In most parts of America, if you want a gun, you can go out and buy one (assuming no criminal record). People who covet guns can get them.In China, private gun ownership is virtually non-existent. Which perhaps explains why Mechtron, a Chinese manufacturer of power tools, designs theirs to look like firearms. This is their G-Pro, a cordless drill:

Japanese overdesign is alternately hilarious and inspiring. ID students should be forced to study it. Because Japanese overdesign is about seeking out even the slightest inconvenience experienced while using an everyday object, then designing a solution for it.Pilot's Kire-Na highlighter is a great example. Apparently the UX issue with existing highlighters, Pilot's designers found, is that users cannot consistently modulate pressure. This leads to blotchy, inconsistent highlighting or bleed-through, both of which have been deemed intolerable. They thus added two protrusions on either side of the chisel nib which act as pressure guides:

Cosmotec is a Tokyo-based company that used to make coated films for monitors and televisions. The company's business took a hit after the '08 crash, and they sought to diversify into the B2C space. They reached out to Japanese design firm and product development company Kenma, asking for product ideas for their film-producing acumen.At a hospital, one of Kenma's designers observed a nurse so busy that she was taking notes directly on her hand. From this observation, Kenma's design team developed a simple idea: An extra-wide slap bracelet, coated with one of Cosmotec's films, that could be used as a sort of on-body whiteboard.

Using a traditional mop and bucket means you're continually dunking the mop head back into dirty water. Joseph Joseph's designers have completely rethought this arrangement with their new UltraClean design, which avoids the incumbent's flaw. This clever system consists of a special two-chamber bucket, and an arrangement that sprays and scrapes the mop head clean each time you insert it.

Doing a lot with a little: Nendo's Toru, an electric kettle for Alessi, perfectly reconciles gesture with form.Taking advantage of Alessi's distinguishing metalworking techniques, which is the origin of the company, the stainless-steel body is shaped simply like a pitcher. The handle coming out from the top seems to go through the side of the body, forming a continuous line to the spout.A handle of a kettle is us

While France produced the Bic 4 Color Pen, Japan's Pentel makes this Multi 8 mechanical pencil, which holds eight different leads. Though it holds eight colors, the company sells 12 all told, if you want to swap out.

In 1970, French writing utensil company Bic released the 4 Color Pen. Aimed at French schoolchildren, the chunky pen featured four spring-loaded cartridges providing black, blue, red and green inks. The pen was a hit, and was exported to the U.S. the next year. It also saw strong sales here, with uptake by students, teachers,