Tag: Inspiration

This top-ranked University of Michigan graduate program is looking for curious, thoughtful designers interested in interdisciplinary problem-solving, community engagement, and critical making.The Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design at the University of Michigan, ranked among the top eight graduate schools in the nation for art and design by U.S. N

My first Makita cordless drill looked something like this: It wasn't "form follows function," but "form follows technology limitations." The crazy-long handle was shaped that way to accommodate the batteries, which at the time used nickel-cadmium (NiCd) cells. These cylindrical cells had to be arranged end-to-end in order to build up the required voltage; this drill's 9.6V capacity meant there were eight 1.2V cells stacked in there. (Makita's 14.4V drill at the time had an even longer handle/battery, with twelve cells stacked inside.) The balance of the long-handled design

This Fixi 45 is a knockdown joinery system by SISO, a Danish manufacturer of furniture fittings. It's for flatpack furniture assembled from mitered boards, like this:

In America, we build our houses with plywood (or OSB) subflooring, then lay hardwood on top of that. In Germany, however, residential floors are built atop concrete slabs topped with a thick "screed"—typically, a mixture of sand and cement, but sometimes wood chips are used. The screed serves as the leveling base for the final flooring, whether it's tile, stone, wood, laminate or carpet.Getting the screed perfectly level is time-consuming and hard on the body. The worker has to assemble two rails and shim them perfectly parallel, then level the screed with a straightedge. German inventor Karl-Heinz Mueller has solved this with his Granubot:

This isn't an ID student project, but may as well be. It came out of a Design Engineering class at Harvard, and was executed by students Adrian Kombe, Meihan Liu and Sirinda Limsong."We were tasked with identifying a systemic problem that could be solved with water, all for less than $750," Kombe writes. "Early on, our team decided that we would focus on advancing and securing hoseline during defensive firefighting operations. This is an extremely arduous process that is made harder by environmental factors and necessary PPE. Before we started desginign some complicated mechanical system, we dug deep to understand the risks, rewards, JTBD (jobs to be done) and more associated with being a Nozzleman."NozzlemateA structural fire response solution designed to improve the speed and safety of hose deploymen

Apple's latest product is just 0.4" thick, and it comes in two sizes: A Short that's 16" in length......and a Long clocking in around 32". So this strange object is the

The 2025 Core77 Design Awards season has ended, finishing as always with the shipment of trophies to our winners. Once again congratulations to all the winners of the 2025 Core77 Design Awards as well as to our Jury Teams.We also want to take this opportunity to thank our trophy manufacturing partner 3ERP, who we've had the pleasure of working with over the past several years. The team at 3ERP does an outstanding job fabricating an

Here's what we looked at this week:Starlink's new D2C capability can deliver broadband directly to your phone—anywhere. Ronon Bouroullec's Ancora tables give concrete a new look.Experimental kinetic furniture design: Aaron Preyer's Blooming project.

What does it say about our product landscape, when a charging cable lands over $600,000 on Kickstarter because it's guaranteed to last? I can see the allure, as we've all gotten so used to cheap crap that breaks. Swiss company Rolling Square says if you buy their inCharge Life cable, what you're really purchasing is a "lifetime right to own a cable," which makes me a bit queasy—there was a time, though not in this century, that most things were built that way.

This reminds me so much of ID school, when last-minute disaster would strike in the studio.Here we see the Fabrication Workshop, a 7,000-square-foot facility at SUNY Buffalo's School of Architecture and Planning.Students taking the Structures III course investigate structural members as design elements themselves, and build their projects in the Fabrication Workshop in teams.Student Team Group 04 had an unlucky break this week, with their Tensioned Sheet project: They were attempting to c