This is a video from the folks at The Hydraulic Press Channel of a hydraulic press with a blade attachment slicing through ten decks of playing cards and launching the cards everywhere…(Read…)
Author and YouTube personality John Green tells the touching tale of a broccoli-shaped tree along the shore of Sweden’s Lake Vättern that became famous after a local man, Patrik Svedberg, began taking daily photographs of the tree on his morning bike commute. Read more about the tree’s story on TheBroccoliTree.com.”Some thoughts on what can be lost, and what can’t be, when we share what we love.”..(Read…)
Beautifully designed and brilliantly named, the Jo bottle opener needs no additional branding. Designed with a form that literally spells Jo (short for “Just Open”. A stroke of genius I’d say), the bottle opener comes made in titanium and is small enough to easily fit into your keychain and your life and dramatically uplift both.
As a product designer, there’s a lot to love about Jo. The choice of material is just perfect. Its small size may have you asking questions about its efficiency, but when something’s made from Grade 5 Titanium, you can forget about lifespan because it’ll probably outlive you. The Jo’s shape is pretty darn innovative too. The designer’s ability to integrate the name of the product into the form (or vice versa) means that product and brand are now both one. Not to mention the fact that Jo stands for Just Open, reinforcing the product’s function.
The Jo can be divided into two parts. The J, which serves as a nifty bottle opener, and the O, which allows you to slide the Jo into any keyring. At just 22x15mm in size and 2mm in thickness, the Jo is smaller than most keys, and can literally slide even into your wallet if you chose. One of the best EDCs to have on you, the Jo is great for impromptu get-togethers or house parties where you’ve got a line of people waiting to use the one bottle opener that’s around, or worse, using counter-tops or their mouth to crack open their beers. Simple, small, useful, innovative, memorable, and pretty much invincible, the Jo embodies all the ideals of good product design and good EDC!
Designer: Ivan Umolac
Le studio de design norvégien Permafrost et la marque japonaise MINISO ont collaboré pour créer une gamme d’appareils électroniques qui mignons et fonctionnels. Inclus dans la gamme de gadgets sont les clés USB, lampes, mini ventilateurs électriques, écouteurs et haut-parleurs bluetooth, le tout dans des couleurs apaisantes. Ils ont disponibles dans les points de vente MINISO en Asie.
Bet you didn’t know this: Firefighters in the U.S. are trained to approach certain types of burning cars from a 45-degree angle, rather than head-on or straight from the rear, because non-crushable-type bumpers–which are designed to absorb shock and thus are effectively pressurized–can turn into projectiles as they heat up. Here’s a crazy story from firefighter Greg Jakubowski in Fire Rescue Magazine:
“In 1995, my department responded to a fire in a barn that was used to store several classic cars, and by the time we arrived, the 30 x 70 building was well involved. While the engine company was positioned at an adjoining pool to draft, the gas strut bumper on a 1987 Porsche 944, which was stored in the barn, exploded without warning.
“The strut rocketed through the weakened wall of the barn, traveled across the pool and struck a ground ladder on the side of the engine that was staged about 75 feet away. The rungs on the ladder were dented from the force of the impact.
“At least one firefighter had been standing in the immediate area of the impact site, but fortunately, he moved just before the strut exploded.”
Firefighters receive special training in vehicle fire protocols, because something as sophisticated as an automobile burns very differently than a mattress being slept on by a careless smoker. Fuel tanks, rubber tires, and increasingly more hotter-burning plastic components all present unique hazards. Not to mention you’ve got no idea what’s in the trunk; was the driver hauling fertilizer, propane tanks, ammunition?
“Remember to open the trunk of the vehicle at some point to check for extension and possible dangerous cargo,” reads another FRM article. “You’d be surprised how many dead people are found in abandoned cars.”
Also, as Jakubowski writes, “The hazards [presented by vehicle fires] get more and more exotic with each new model year.”
Electric cars present a particular problem. Although they don’t have those pesky tanks filled with gasoline, they do sport high-voltage lithium-ion batteries that can, even after being extinguished, continue to re-ignite. (Remember that hoverboard that would not stop exploding?)
Thus Tesla actually designed two “first responder cut loops” into their cars–one in the front trunk, one in the back–and each year releases Emergency Response Guides for first responders instructing them on how to fight a Tesla fire.
Cutting either of the loops “shuts down the high voltage system outside of the high voltage battery and disables the SRS and airbag components,” reducing the risk of explosion.
They also have to show firefighters where not to cut during rescue/firefighting efforts.
Additionally, information is included in Tesla’s guide warning of the toxic vapors released by a burning battery. A woman crashed her Tesla in Austria and managed to escape unharmed, and the resultant fire was captured on video.
As the firefighting unit–which thankfully had the training–reported (translated by Jalopnik):
The fire fighting – which could only be carried out under severe respiratory protection – was difficult because the vehicle was repeatedly on fire. It was only after cutting the power supply from the high-performance batteries that it was possible to finally fight the fire. Since lithium batteries are used, the manufacturer recommends that the vehicle be parked under “quarantine” for 48 hours, so that no new fire can break out.
At the end of that video, what you’re seeing is the firefighters using a powered saw to cut their way towards the rear shut-off loop.
I should point out that Teslas are statistically less likely to catch on fire than other cars. It’s just that if yours catches on fire, yeah, maybe you call the fire department rather than going at it with an extinguisher.
In any case, I already had the utmost respect for firefighters; now that I know they have to bone up on new car technologies too, my estimation only grows.
Most senior designers I know insist that doing preliminary sketches on paper is far faster, and allows for far more creativity than using even the most sophisticated CAD software. The reason given is that even a good CAD program is still an additional layer between you and the manifestation of an idea.
Even if you know how to draw, graph paper makes it easy to keep things in proportion. Isometric or 3D graph paper helps with proportion at the same time it helps you draw in 3D. To that end we are posting for free download some isometric graph paper. Feel free to download and print as many copies of our isometric paper as you want for your personal use. We have both portrait and landscape.
In this drawing Tim did of a table he made, you can see how the sketch progressed from a few rough lines to a distinct object in 3D. Hidden lines were removed and shading and lines added to suggest wood grain, surface texture, and the visible parts of the joinery. You can’t tell from the sketch but in the final table the centerpiece is a metal bowl, hammered, and installed flush to the table top. What you can tell from the sketch is the idea of a bowl-like recess developing as an idea – which is the whole point of sketching things out.
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This “Tools & Craft” section is provided courtesy of Joel Moskowitz, founder of Tools for Working Wood, the Brooklyn-based catalog retailer of everything from hand tools to Festool; check out their online shop here. Joel also founded Gramercy Tools, the award-winning boutique manufacturer of hand tools made the old-fashioned way: Built to work and built to last.
The bikes on display at the 2018 North American Hand Made Bike Show, recently completed in Hartford, CT, are inspirational works of art, beautifully constructed and painted, ready to hit the road or trail. As a life-long biker, I’ve been to many rides and festivals that feature a few booths and vendors selling accessories, but this was my first time at a proper bike builder show, so I was like a kid in a candy store.
The show was big enough that it took us a bit more than 4 hours to walk the floor, but not so big that you got overwhelmed and desensitized to the beautiful creations on display. The material of choice was steel, with plenty of carbon fiber and titanium on display as well. A few builders showed bikes made with bamboo tubes, with a particularly interesting bamboo project on display from the Cyclolab at the University of Kansas.
The attention paid to each machine is truly impressive. Gleaming paint jobs, exquisitely crafted welds, beautiful head badges, polished chrome bits and matching seat/tape and cranks/rims are all standard offerings. I have a hard enough time keeping the tires matched on my personal bikes. Coordinating the color scheme as tastefully as the pro builders do it is no easy task, proving once again how important the details are.
In addition to the bike builders showing their wares, the show included displays from several of the big parts manufacturers, tube producers, wheel builders and vendors selling other accessories. I was surprised that there were not more bag makers participating, since many of the bikes shown were bikepacking and adventure-touring rigs.
Overall, for a bike enthusiast it is a great way to spend an afternoon. For a design fan, or someone who appreciates hand crafted, analog technology, its a rare collection of people and objects literally exemplifying the state of the art. I’m happy to report that the custom build bike industry is thriving. Now I just have to figure out how to get one myself.
Since serpentwithfeet’s 2016 debut EP blisters, we’ve been entirely beguiled by the Brooklyn-based artist. Today, the Baltimore-born singer (aka Josiah Wise) releases the first track from his upcoming debut LP soil, “bless ur heart.” Like much of serpentwithfeet……
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
