Tag: Design

This Grasp Lamp, by Danish industrial designer Thomas Albertsen, isn't really a lamp in the technical sense: Instead it's a structure to hold lighting. Which is to say, the lamp has no wiring, just a (presumably magnetic) connection point where you pop in a rechargeable LED light.

Space may be infinite, but it has the same problem we do on Earth: Not enough housing. Builders of space habitats are constrained by shipping capacity. While rocket launches have become cheaper and more frequent, there are only so many building materials you can cram into the payload. "For example, the ISS took more than 40 flights," writes Max Space, "and cost more than $100 billion to build. Max Space can provide the equivalent cubic volume of the ISS in space for $200 million—including launch—bringing the cost down by over a hundred-fold."Company founder Maxim de Jong, a pioneer of "soft system space architecture," is the world's premier expert on using expandable materials i

In the UK, where drinking warm beer was a thing, pint glasses were an appropriate vessel for centuries. In 20th century Germany, a new type of beer vessel evolved along with the technology of refrigeration: The stange, which translates to "pole" or "rod," as that's what the narrow-but-tall vessel resembled.Stangen are used to serve Cologne's Kölsch style of beer, which is best imbibed cold; thus the glasses hold just 100-200mL (3.4 – 6.8 oz), allowing you to get it down your gullet before the room warms it up. The narrow design exposes a minimal amount of beer to the ambient air, and also allows a frothy head to form.

This object might baffle Westerners visiting Japan:

At first glance, wearable speakers are a strange bit of kit. When Bose released their Soundwear Companion in 2017, I couldn't see the use case. But as I age it becomes more obvious. I frequently use captions while watching shows or movies, as I have a difficult time making out the dialogue, particularly if it's sci-fi with technical language. There are also times when I'm doing multi-room tasks, would like to listen to a podcast, but cannot wear headphones as I need to keep an ear out for animal care reasons. With full hands, carrying a Bluetooth speaker becomes inconvenient.There must not have been enough old people paying attention; Bose quickly bailed out of the wearable speaker market, quietly axing the Soundwear Companion in 2020. No reason was pro

These stunning furniture pieces are by Australian furniture designer/builder Brodie Neill (who did that ReCoil table we looked at earlier). First off, this Bonsai shelving unit was commissioned by a client. It's made of bronze and hollow:

Muddycap is the handle of an anonymous artist/designer whose bio reads "I make chairs and shits." His Instagram is a deep portfolio of insane chair designs. (Most appear to be renderings, though he can be seen making models in some shots and occasionally shows IRL full-size builds.)

Korean artist/designer Oneseo Choi must have a steady supply of castoff aluminum extrusions. His "Pattern of Industry" series uses them to make furniture:

London-based Scott Richler's design background is atypical: He's worked as both an architect and a jewelry designer. Both disciplines have clearly informed his Harlow Chandelier:

Italian industrial designer Bruno Munari designed this radical Cubo posacenere ("Cube ashtray") around 1954:Image: Di Albertozanardo - CC BY-SA 4.0 Placing the butts inside the box was completely outside-the-box; up until that point, anything we'd call an ashtray was an open dish, with the crushed butts and ash clearly visible.