Tag: Inspiration

The ShadeSock is an alternative to beach umbrellas or sail shades. Intended for beaches that get a steady breeze, it's essentially a giant windsock. Unlike an umbrella, it works with the wind (and indeed, requires it in order to stay aloft) rather than fighting it. And unlike a sail shade, it's completely silent.Of course, you'll look like a fool if you bring this to a beach that doesn't have steady wind—there's no structure to it, so it will collapse without a breeze. And yes, like a windsock it rotates, so the

This innovative PT-200 is a remote-controlled, battery-powered LED light that can pan and tilt, with 360-degree rotation. It features a magnetic base, giving you the freedom of a quick, wire-free installation. Multiple units can be connect

Typically, upholstery is fastened to furniture by adhesives, tacks or staples. London-based industrial designers Yael Mer and Shay Alkalay, a/k/a Raw-Edges Design Studio, took a different approach with this experimental chair design.

In the early 1900s, Prague city officials commissioned a masonry embankment alongside the Vltava River. This was to protect against flooding and provide the structure for a quay. This massive wall was built with vaulted chambers within the wall, to be used as storage space.In the 2010s, these historic vaults were turned into contemporary businesses under a design by architect Petr Janda. The vaulted spaces were given massive acrylic portholes on a pivot, to serve as their entrances. Of these businesses, perhaps the best known today is the (A)Void Café. Its striking entranceway has become a social media destination:

Toulouse-based Compagnie La Machine is, strangely, a street-theatre company with an internal design-build firm. They create kinetic machines in their workshop, and incorporate them into their performances.As one example, in the café of their Halle de la Machine exhibition space, they serve a Lunch of Small Mechanicals on the weekends. Diners are served by performers using steampunk-like contraptions to serve the food: Bread is fired by catapults, serving carts are replaced by giant wheels, the fresh pepper is delivered Tom-Cruise-Mission: Impossible-style, and the dessert descends on chandeliers.

In pre-industrial Japan, the predecessor to storm windows were these hinged panels.Image: Ktmchi, CC BY-SA 4.0 Called shitomi or hajitomi, these wooden lattices were supported by hooks hanging from the eaves.Image: Ktmchi, CC BY-SA 4.0

This two-compartment waste bin is by veteran British industrial designer Daniel Barnes, a/k/a Manufactured Design. It's intended for what Barnes' people call the loo:Store & Sort Recycler is an in-bathroom recycling solution designed to capture waste that is commonly missed by household recycling. Many recyclable items are either thrown into mixed bathroom waste or carried to the kitchen, creating friction that leads to landfill. Confusion around what can be recycled, combined with the lack of dedicated bathroom solutions, results in large volumes of recoverable material being lost.

Now that Dyson's HQ is in Singapore, perhaps the balmy climate inspired this product: Their new HushJet Mini Cool, a handheld fan. It adapts the "Air Multiplier" technology that powers their vacuums, but has been reversed to blow air outwards, without using a bladed fan. The device is remarkably powerful, despite its diminutive size: A ti

In the mid-20th-century, American car styling dominated the world. By the late 20th century and into the 21st, that styling mantle had been ceded to the Europeans, the Japanese and increasingly, the Koreans.But now we live in a world where China has developed a gigantic auto market, the world's largest; Chinese domestic auto sales last year were around 27 million cars, vs. 16 million in the U.S. And Chinese buyers have wildly different aesthetic tastes than the rest of the world. The country's economic history means their citizens never saw '50s Cadillacs, '60s Mustangs, '70s Mercedes, '80s BMWs, '90s Toyotas, et cetera, and their citizens are unburdened with automotive aesthetic history.Which means established brands must pivot towards Chinese tastes, if they want a piece of that market. Hyundai has thus unveiled two new IONIQ conce

Here's what we looked at this week:Hay's minimalist Host Portable Lamp. Elegant trestles enabled by welded steel tubes, by RCKA Architects and design/build firm Tim Denton.Object fetishization: The Unito X Toyo Coffee Box.