Hasta La Ideas

In what is best described as a modern-day eureka moment, Noam Bar Yohai stumbled upon an idea of combining coloring pens with super strong magnets. These magnetic pens, dubbed as MAGNETIPS, became more than just humble stationery! While pens and pencils are tools for creation, MAGNETIPS takes that creation to a whole new three-dimensional level! With their hexagon shaped magnetically attracting bodies, these pens can be used to create bizarre, beautiful, and even useful wireframe structures… for work as well as for play!

MAGNETIPS can be used in a wide variety of ways. They can stack to form blocks, interconnect to form structures and sculptures, and can be turned into incredibly entertaining and engaging fidget toys. You can use them to make wireframe sculptures, or even build your own drawing-tools, by making rulers, triangle-guides, etc. Their magnetic abilities even let you use them to organize your desk-space by building pen-stands (ironic, eh?), and even organizers for paper-clips or charging cables.

After an incredibly successful first run on Kickstarter, the MAGNETIPS are back, better than ever, now with gel-refills. Perfect for all coloring and doodling activities, the gel-refills are removable, allowing you to continue using the pen for years by simply replacing refills once they are finished. Each pen come with two rare-earth neodymium magnets embedded inside, giving them incredible magnetic strength (enough to lift over 10 times their weight). To enhance the experience, MAGNETIPS are designed to be paired with chrome ball-bearings that allow you to build complex structures with interconnected limbs that can swivel and pivot, bringing sheer life and magic to all your creations. Yeah, I’m probably never going back to regular stationery after this…

Designer: Noam Bar Yohai of Studio Typica

Click Here to Buy Now: $33 $51 (35% off). Hurry, less than 24 hours left! Raised over $100,000.

MAGNETIPS: Magnetic Gel Pens

MAGNETIPS are an innovative set of Gel Pens – each has been combined with super strong Neodymium Magnets to create a pen set with incredible features. A uniquely designed pen set with magnetic properties; simply color, doodle and fidget like with no other pen.

Each pen in the sets will attract one another, allowing you to draw in new and creative ways, and when not used for writing and coloring they will completely transform the way you use pens and the look of your desktop.

…Very satisfying

In each pen, they are using two super strong Axially Magnetized Rare-Earth Neodymium Magnets – one of the strongest and most permanent types in existence.

Never lose your pen cap again…

The magnet in the pen lid and the magnet in the pen body are fixed in opposite polarities. This ensures the lid will always be attracted to the pen body.

Super Strong

On average, Neodymium magnets will only lose less than 1% of their strength over 10 years. They won’t even lose their strength if they are held in repelling or attracting positions with other magnets over long periods of time, So your pens will keep their unique properties for a very long time.

Below: Features Like No Other

Twenty Amazing Colors

The new MAGNETIPS Gel Edition uses the same cheerful color palette as in the original set. The team have carefully chosen 20 vibrant tones which not only look great on paper but also have a strong visual effect when combined together on you desk. The pen also has fast-dry water based Gel inks.

The team have patiently calibrated the tones to match as closely as possible to the existing pallet and the pen body color.

Smooth Writing Experience

The 0.7 mm stainless steel Rollerball tip provides a smooth writing experience and the gel ink has a great flow which allows for fast, easy and accurate coloring.

The refill tip is carefully made to the highest precision. That means that the new pens can be left open for over a week without drying out. Fast-dry ink means less smears when writing and coloring.

Easily Refillable

MAGNETIPS are constructed from durable ABS plastic and are easily refillable by simply unscrewing the pen body and inserting a new refill. Over their lifetime, it is estimated that MAGNETIPS can produce over 60% less waste than normal disposable coloring pen.

What Will You Create?

MAGNETIPS can enhance your creativity-you can use them as normal pens for coloring , drawing, writing and doodling, but the real magic happens when they come together thanks to the strong magnets – magnetips will help you create beautiful artwork without the need for any other instruments.

Declutter Your Desk

The pens will stick together, or to any metallic surface with ease, and can double as a stunning desktop organiser when not used for drawing.

With the pens you can easily transform the look of your desktop in seconds and become more organized.

The pens will stick together, or to any metallic surface with ease, and can double as a stunning desktop organizer when not used for drawing.

Below: The Chrome Balls Challenge

To further enhance the MAGNETIPS experience, the team designed them to interact with metallic chrome balls and provide endless possibilities for creative play and fidget that will help you concentrate.

Each of the pens has been uniquely design conceived ends which fits the Chrome Balls and enhance the ability for building by adding a super flexible moving joint to your creations.

The Balls will attract strongly to the magnets and have a durable Chrome finish which will not easily rust.

When was the last time you have built an actual Gaussian Gun from your pens?

Invent new and beautiful ways to keep MAGNETIPS on your desk.

The Perfect Fidget Pen

By adding magnets to the pens, the team has actually created one of the worlds most satisfying fidget pens!

MAGNETIPS can help you fidget and play at your desk – great for stress relieving, regaining your focus and for boosting your attention levels after long hours at work.

Color finish and Matt Black finish

Color & Black Editions

They wanted MAGNETIPS to be the centrepiece of you desktop. This is why they have decided to make their pens in two distinct finishes-Colour finish and Matt black finish-to suit every taste and any room style. Both editions are made from the same durable materials and are refillable.

Tech Spec

Click Here to Buy Now: $33 $51 (35% off). Hurry, Only 8/245 left!

Sigurd Larsen has wrapped a cabin around a living tree in a Danish forest to create the first room of a hotel designed for Løvtag.

Perched eight metres above the floor of its forest site 0n the Danish peninsula of Als Odde, the cabin is the first of nine that Sigurd Larsen  is designing for Løvtag. The cabins will be clustered in the forest and each house a separate bedroom for up to four guests.

The idyllic location is close to both the sea and Denmark’s longest fjord, the Mariager, which winds inland through a diverse landscape.

“The cabins are located on a small hilltop overlooking a meadow which gives a wonderful view over the top of the forest and lets the sunshine in during the afternoon,” said the architecture studio.

The cabin is built around an existing tree, which acts as a centre point for a roughly pinwheel plan, with a central square form off of which areas that are angled towards the surrounding views protrude. The following tree-top cabins will all have a similar plan and will also be built around existing trees.

A sweeping wooden bridge leads up from the forest floor into the cabin’s living space, which is divided loosely into a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and living area. A small wooden staircase leads further upwards to the rooftop terrace.

“The access to the roof terrace gives the impression that you continue to ‘climb’ the tree to reach the canopy”, described the studio.

“In all directions scenic views of the forest are framed by panoramic windows”.

Designed to be an expression of “Nordic minimalism”, space usage in the wood-lined interior has been maximised, with built-in furniture and wardrobes.

Both a seating area and the bed sit in areas that protrude from the central, cube-like form, with full-height glazing looking out towards the forest.

Externally, these angled forms have been highlighted with metal cladding, contrasting the rest of the structure’s wooden cladding.

The cantilevered shower room, designed to give the experience of bathing in the forest, hangs from the facade shielded by perforated metal screens.

Danish architect Sigurd Larsen founded Berlin-based Sigurd Larsen Architects in 2010.

Hotels comprised of individual treehouse cabins are proving a popular approach for designers, particularly in scenic landscapes.

At Sweden’s Treehotel, seven individual firms were commissioned to design unique treehouse rooms, and Chinese practice ZJJZ Atelier recently completed a series of 10 cabins forming a hotel in a dramatic mountain landscape.

Photography is by Soeren Larsen.

Project credits:

Client: Løvtag Aps
Architect: Sigurd Larsen
Contractor: BB Bygge & Entreprenørfirma
Engineer: LB Consult Rådgivende Ingeniør AS
Furniture products: Hay, Sigurd Larsen

The post Sigurd Larsen completes treetop hotel cabin appeared first on Dezeen.

In what could be a very insightful exercise for transportation designers, both country-specific and internationally, the guys at NeoMam Studios have superimposed as many as 25 pictures of cars within distinct, separate categories to create an image of “the average car”. This amalgamation of fronts and rears is interesting because it sees no brand, it sees no price, and it sees no cultural or budget constraints. All it is, is a visual mash-up of multiple cars across multiple brands to create something homogeneous. The “average car” series does two interesting things. It A. Shows us what’s common between cars of categories, and B. Shows us how some brands have also tried to be subtly different. There’s a distinct similarity in, for example, the taillight design of a Pickup versus a Sedan, or the grille on a Convertible versus the grille on a Crossover. It’s important for transportation designers to recognize these similarities and differences in car designs, so that it’s much easier to break the mold of design and create something truly new and daringly different. Let’s take a look at how these average cars look, and how designers of the future can break this pattern of predictability.

Designer: Designer: NeoMam Studios for Budget Direct.

The Average Pickup

Pickups are the best-selling vehicles in USA and are the sturdy backbone of Ford and GM’s business. Considering that basically the entire global pickup market is US-focused, it’s no surprise that size is everything when it comes to the average front. The sleek lines of Japanese and European models, like the Isuzu D-Max or Mercedes X-Class are toughened out with the more rugged, boxed appearance of the likes of the GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado.

The average rear of a pickup shows quite a few competing elements trying to muscle through. A full rear-light pillar on both sides wins out over more minimalist approaches, like on the F-150. The average pickup will also ride a lot higher than might be expected, sticking to its original working vehicle roots rather than going down the line of many modern versions which often seem more intent on looking like performance cars than carrying a load of stakes.

The Average UTE

Where would we be without the beloved UTE? The rest of the world considers them a bit of an anomaly but here at home they reign supreme, so much so that pretty much every manufacturer selling in Australia offers a UTE version. With UTEs’ fronts ranging from compacts or saloons, like the Jumbuck, to commercials like the VW Caddy, all the way to full on American-style pickups in the mold of the HiLux, the average front is quite a mix of styles. What wins out is the form of lower riding saloon, but with sterner lines and a flattened bonnet giving its appearance a touch of American muscle.

Though UTEs are all about party at the front and business at the back, the average rear is surprisingly heavy-duty, looking exactly like what a saloon/pickup cross should. There are hints of the side bars and tarp and Tonneau cover supports that set UTEs apart from their American cousins but by the looks of things the average UTE would have carrying capacity to match any of them.

The Average Hatchback

Though everyone will have their favorites for different reasons, hatchbacks generally follow a formulaic pattern, which was why it was notable when some strong features shone through despite being averaged out. Its height to width ratio, for example, makes it a lot taller than one would think, which would suggest that manufacturers have been quietly super-sizing hatchback models to meet modern tastes while still striving for them to fit into “small” car categories. This is also borne out in the bonnet size, which is in line with a smaller engine housing, but appears to be relatively tiny compared to the rest of the car’s dimensions.

The average rear is also an eye-opener for hatchback aficionados. Gone is the sporty fastback style of the mid-00s and in is a far more reserved, Yaris-style straight rear. Though that doesn’t mean that the sporty nature of hatchbacks has been completely eroded, the averaging out also delivers a dual exhaust system to keep the horsepower ticking over.

The Average Sedan

The average sedan actually turns out to look anything but average, showing off some slick lines and boasting a meaty radiator grille. The wraparound headlights are definitely on-point and the bonnet shows off a sweeping curve around the sides which follows the current Japanese design trend from, among others, the new Subaru Legacy and Toyota Camry. So, even though the averaging methodology is completely objective, here it’s definitely managed to create something which would fit right in at any of the major shows.

The rear of our average sedan takes a slightly less bold and adventurous route. The boot and rear shoulders would more befit a boxer than a ballet dancer but who’s to say that sturdy and uncompromising isn’t exactly what the average sedan driver is looking for. The rear intakes and dual exhausts add a dash of flair but, overall, it’s a solid, dependable look that wins out.

The Average SUV

Sports utility vehicles or SUVs are a heavy-duty lot which don’t really know whether they want to be off-roaders or city-tractors. Due to this vehicular dysmorphia and the different design directions taken by the various marques, we discovered that the average SUV came out with some fascinating features. The front is stern, with an imposing and slightly protruding nose and the kind of grille that wouldn’t look out of place on a semi-truck.

The average rear has very much the appearance of one of the original archetypes of the class, the Chevy Suburban. This elongated and box-like rear was originally to give extra room for your camping gear, but from the look of the average SUV we’ve created, they have now become the size of a small house.

The Average Convertible

As a favorite of design teams who get to let loose with lines, curves and features, each convertible is unique and so an interesting challenge for the averaging process. Drawing from Corvettes, Porsches, S-Classes and many more, the result is that most of the kinks and curves are ironed out, though the car still holds onto its low-profile character and the extra lower front air intakes to keep the likely souped-up powertrain chilled.

The average rear however really takes on some of the best sporty features from the convertible class. A quad exhaust system should keep air flowing nicely, while the drag-reducing aerodynamic curves wouldn’t hold the car back. The average convertible would obviously also have the hood down, what’s the point in having a convertible otherwise.

The Average Crossover

Crossovers are already a considerable mix of ideas, in that they generally share a design platform with smaller cars but get amped up to be like milder versions of SUVs, so creating an average version suited it perfectly. This can be seen in the front, where the narrowing curves around the headlights lead to a more tapered grille than the more in-your-face battering ram approach of an SUV. The windscreen and upper part are also more petite than pronounced, aiming for substance rather than statement.

The rear of the average crossover is also a lot more understated than the SUV but carries a lot more heft than the average sedan or hatchback, though it has a similarly low profile. It displays nice lines below the brake lights and a sleek rear window design.

Go ahead! Bookmark this article for reference in the future, or add it to your Pinterest for later-on use!

We recently had the chance to visit SCAD in Savannah to check out their 2019 College of Art and Design (CAD) grad show. We focused mainly on industrial and product design projects during our visit, which were housed in SCAD’s The Shed building during the exhibition. Overall, we were very impressed by the quality of work the students had on display, so we weren’t too surprised to learn that in 2018, SACD’s CAD celebrated a whopping 99 percent of alumni employed—90 percent of which are working in a creative profession. We walked the entire show and came up with a list of projects we were most excited to learn about. So, let’s take a virtual walk through some recent SCAD grads’ work:

Stick & Fish by Alexia Maegli

Stick & Fish is a fishing reel toy designed to attach to any stick, allowing infinite possibilities for DIY fishing rods. Alexia Maegli’s original idea was to design a universal, easy-transport reel, but the concept later developed into a toy. Adjustable straps allow the system to be flexible and fit any form of stick—it’s primitive, fun and simple to use.

Photography: Jenna Nabridge

TocaTiles by Olivia Vieira (photography by Jenna Nabridge)

“How might I create a sanctuary for children where they can be themselves, be imaginative, create their own space and feel safe and secure?” asked designer Olivia Vieira. The result of this question is TocaTiles, a customizable play space consisting of connecting triangular forms, designed to help children cope with being alone and physically express their need for personal space. TocaTiles come in easy-to-store packaging that helps the child keep their tiles organized.

Parzialmente by Andrea Parziale

The Parzialmente collection by Andrea Parziale takes scrapped motorcycle parts and re-purposes them into customizable furniture—think bar stools made from the front shocks of Ducati Monsters, which use working hydraulics to create a more comfortable seating experience. Parziale sourced the motorcycle parts on ebay, the metal parts where CNC plasma cut by Universal Steel, and they did the leather upholstery, woodwork, welding and assembly themselves. Customers are able to customize most of the parts to their liking on the Parzialmente website.

Simple. Period. by Eduardo Dodge

After hearing a group of women tell stories about horrible PAP smears—freezing rooms, male doctors, steel tools—Eduardo Doge decided to research women’s healthcare to see if there is a way to improve the frustrating and uncomfortable PAP smear experience. Simple. Period. is a small personal device that uses menstrual blood to identify diseases such as cervical cancer and endometriosis. It does so using microfluidic chips that isolate cells by their size. Dodge’s goal with this project is to, “provide access to affordable healthcare for women in their homes and communities, promote the well-being of women and their families across the globe, and empower women through education, giving them more control over their health.”

In terms of cleanliness of the medical device, Dodge states that,”inside the device there is a pump that pulls the blood sample into the chip and pumps acetone or alcohol through it to sterilize it after the test is complete. An acetone container, a solenoid valve to switch between air and acetone, and a battery and bluetooth/wifi transceiver are also included so that the information can be sent to the doctor directly with the consent of the patient. Despite being able to sterilize itself” he continues, “it is also possible to discard the microfluidic chip by pushing the button on the bottom of the device.”

Namu Spirits by Tiffany Zhang

Namu Spirits is a toy designed to introduce the difficult reality of death to a kids. With every Spirit, the child receives a story book that explains what the Spirit is and how the relationship between the two can grow. The toy is comprised of three different layers of materials: the first layer is a thin layer of fabric. As the fabric falls away, it will reveal a paper pulp material infused with photochromic pigments that change color in UV light. As the child takes the spirit into the sun, it will change color and slowly decompose. As the child keeps interacting with its Namu Spirit, the final layer (made from coconut husk) will begin to reveal itself. Once this happens, the Namu Spirit is ready to be planted in the ground and nurtured into a real tree.

FrEyes by Mukund Asagodu

Anthropophobia is a fear for people and human company which leads to adverse effects on an individual’s psychological as well as physical being. As a way to ease anxiety for people experiencing Anthropophobia, Mukund Asagodu created FrEyes, a pair of simple AI assistive glasses that measures and analyzes the state of mind and level of comfort. In a series of three phases dependent on the user’s anxiety level, the glasses play the user’s favorite music to reduce anxiety, uses AI to activate real-time filters to eliminate eye contact (e.g. replacing peoples’ faces with french fries), and either attempts to calm the user by playing a relaxing video if the area is safe or calls the user’s emergency contact if they are under extreme stress.

Photography: Caroline Jakubowski)

Changé Pointe Shoe by Defne Öztürk

For the past 100 years, ballet shoes have been made using the exact same methods, with the same materials such as paper, cardboard and silk. Defne Öztürk created Changé ballet shoes to challenge the traditional ballet shoe by creating a more durable, customizable and comfortable solution. She believes that, “in the age of high-tech sneakers with innovative materials, ballet shoes can also benefit from the same technological advancements.”

Changé pointe shoes are modular, meaning the box and shank can be swapped out to allow the dancer to experiment with different levels of hardness without having to buy a new shoe. Changé is also the first pointe shoe to incorporate built-in toe support based on different toe types, so that the dancer can distribute their weight evenly on their toes.

Tilt Project by Zoye Ruehl

Tilt Project explores the idea of customized footwear dependent on arch type. With an adjustable boa lacing structure, the wearer is able to raise and lower the arch support setting to their specific needs. “Some people have one high and one low arch and require different support; some people have flat feet but still supinate; some people like more arch support during different times of the day,” says designer Zoye Ruehl. “No two feet are the same, and it’s time we stop making shoes as if they are.”

Ten years ago generative design was not a widely available technology (unless you were running Rhino and Grasshopper). Today it’s integrated with Fusion 360. As the technology becomes more ubiquitous, designers who have avoided thinking about it will be caught flatfooted. Even if you yourself are not currently in a position to use it, it’s likely you’ll encounter it in future projects. The smart money says you should consider GD’s place in modern design and form an opinion on how the technology ought be wielded.

The non-I.D. layperson may not have ever heard of Rhino, Grasshopper, Autodesk. But everyone’s heard of Volkswagen, and the German automaker recently released shots of a classic Microbus design touched up with Fusion-based generative design elements, created in collaboration with Autodesk. That’s meant to build consumer awareness of GD. But before I get into that, let’s look at what the technology promises, within the context of what came before.

Figuring out how to create strong structures has been the domain of mankind, ever since the first caveman decided he was done with caves.

“Let’s move to the coast.”

Fast-forward dozens of millennia, and man had figured out timber frames. By observing basic geometry and learning to interlock different members together in a particular way, incredibly sturdy edifices, which have since been proven to withstand earthquakes and even atomic blasts, began to be erected.

Once we got into metal and mass manufacturing, engineers perfected the steel truss. The support elements were a lot finer, and the assembly of them more straightforward; it was easier to teach a guy named Jack to weld than to teach someone named Josiah to saw and pare a half-lapped dovetail joint.

Steel trusses, of course, changed structural design forever. With the ability to create large spans, architects could now create megachurches, convention centers and casinos with a minimum of support columns.

Industrial designers employ support trusses on a smaller scale. These can often be invisible, inside an injection-molded part…

…or left visible as a functional but stylish element, like on a Ducati Monster 797.

Car rims are another area where structural function and design style can be combined.

Which brings us to the latest example of generative design: The vintage Microbus cooked up by VW and Autodesk. VW’s Innovation and Engineering Center California retrofitted an existing ‘Bus with an electric drive system, and to strip weight from the vehicle, turned to generative design for some of the components. Exhibit A: The GD’d rims, which provide the required structure while cutting the weight by 18%:

“With generative design it’s possible to create structures that we, as human designers and engineers, could never have created otherwise,” said Andrew Morandi, senior product designer, Volkswagen Group. “One of the biggest surprises for me was seeing just how much material you could remove from a conventional wheel structure.”

They also applied generative design to the sideview mirror mounts, the steering wheel and the rear bench supports:

“A steering wheel is not a particularly heavy component but it’s the primary touchpoint for the driver. People aren’t really accustomed to touching mounts or supports,” said Erik Glaser, principal product designer, Volkswagen Group. “We wanted to put a generatively designed object in a place where people will touch it because not only is it intricate and beautiful, but it can also give a sense of just how strong these parts can be.”

This is subjective, but I really do not like the look of these GD’d elements. If you look at the conventional trusses pictured earlier in this entry, you see the hands of man, historical progression. The timber frames, the structures and the Ducatis were designed by the same species.

When I look at the generatively-designed trusses, I see an unnatural combination of organic and technological that read to me as grotesque. I know this is an irrational view; if we look inside the tissue, bones and organs of our own bodies, we’d see similarly optimized and yet random-appearing structures.

Which is where I stand on it–I’d like the benefits of generative design to be largely invisible, used for internal support structures rather than highlighted as aesthetic elements. I’d like for the machine to deliver us the cost and material savings behind the scenes, while human designers are responsible for the forward-facing elements.

Indeed, when I first got to see generative design up close at Autodesk University some years ago, it wasn’t the shot of a GD’d chair that impressed me…

…it was a human-bones-based automotive suspension component that drove the potential home to me. It featured a GD’d weight-saving internal lattice that no human could have devised:

As I wrote back then, “The software isn’t filling the void with the same repeating pattern. It actually mimics bone by adding material only where it’s necessary and removing material where it’s not.” That’s something a human designer cannot do–not in a time-efficient way, in any case–and where the machine can spit out thousands of variants relatively quickly. That is where the machine’s strengths lie, not in aesthetic presentation, so I hope that that latter part will be left to human designers.

Ultimately, however, my viewpoint doesn’t matter; it will be up to the current and next generation of designers who have the agency to decide how they will incorporate GD into their designs. It will then be up to our corporate masters to greenlight those designs, and finally for the end users to vote with their dollars.

Given the choice, do you think designers should nakedly expose GD’d elements? Is this something that ought be accepted as an aesthetic in its own right?

_________

Up Next: What do practicing industrial designers think of generative design? As it turns out, Core77 forum members have been having this discussion–starting nearly ten years ago. If you were to print out the entire discussion to date, it’d be more than 100 pages. We’ll cull through the entire thing and present you with the salient points.