Hasta La Ideas

As an industrial designer, which would you rather do: Design brand new objects and interfaces that have never existed before, or design improvements into existing objects? Both have their challenges, but I for one love seeing folks tweak longstanding, everyday designs to improve their functionality.

The latest Kickstarter smash success falls into this latter category. Portland-based Mike Whitehead is a product designer who loves to cook, but after years of using a common cast-iron skillet, he realized it was “long overdue” for a re-design.

First off, the handle of a cast-iron skillet is essentially a design fail that people are willing to live with. The standard handle is tiny and loop-like, the faster to dissipate heat, yet you still need an oven mitt to handle the thing, so you get the worst of both worlds: An uncomfortable, unergonomic handle that can burn you.

Secondly, the finish of a cast-iron skillet’s cooking surface wears its production method on its sleeve: The rough texture screams sand casting. This makes it tough to clean.

Thirdly, a skillet’s circular shape distributes heat evenly, but does not lend itself well to pouring out the sauces you’ve been simmering.

Let’s take a look at how Whitehead, with the help of industrial designer David Lewin and 3D modeler Kip Buck, solved these problems with their Finex design:

At press time the Finex had blown way past its $25,000 target with over $150,000 in funding. There are still three days left to get in on it and the first units will ship on December 15th, just in time for the holidays.

By the bye, the Finex logo was designed by Aaron Draplin of Field Notes fame.

Hit the jump for some bonus manufacturing footage: How they prototyped the handle, and a look at the sweet 5-axis CNC mill cutting the mold.

(more…)

From gluten-free sorbet bars to ice cream for dogs, we’re always on the look out for new ideas within the realm of frozen treats. The latest to pique our interest is the recordOutboundLink(this,…

Continue Reading…

Test print by artist Davidope

I’ve never gone back and looked at a GIF I’d already seen; I see them as cute, fun and ultimately disposable. But a legion of artists, a pair of data visualiss and several hundred Kickstarter backers disagree with me. Thus Gifpop, a campaign to create physical GIFs that you can hold in your hand, reached and doubled its funding target in less than 24 hours. (Admittedly, keeping the target at a low $5,000 probably helped.)

By using lenticular film—that striated, prism-filled plastic that can show you different images as you tilt it—architect and data visualist Sha Hwang, and data visualist Rachel Binx, are seeking to print physical cards that display “animated” GIFs. “We think that gifs and lenticular printing are two simple, lo-fi technologies that were made for each other,” the duo writes. And with a max capacity of ten frames per card, lenticular film is in fact a good GIF fit (even if it’s not for Vine, although the pair have set that as a future goal).

There’s still over three weeks left to pledge, and for a low $12 buy-in, you can have a GIF of your choice printed onto a 3×3 card and mailed to you. (Larger sizes available for more bread.) Here’s Hwang and Binx’s pitch video:

(more…)

Beer Press Collection, c’est un impressionnant projet Kickstarter qui a déjà soulevé la somme nécessaire pour produire des repose-verres au design très réussi. Des créations d’une grande beauté, proposées dans différents packs à découvrir en images dans la suite de l’article.

Homebrewing is a test. The reward: Beer whenever you want and your own unique recipe (plus beaucoup indie cred points). And this is no half-hearted attempt. Unlike pickling or infusions (other gastronomical pursuits du jour), homebrewing requires an investment of weeks, sometimes months, with a learning curve for each batch and style. But let’s be real—no one wants to wait 4–6 weeks dreaming about how their beer is going to taste while it goes through some scientific fermentation process. Well, maybe you do. And that’s ok, too.

But for those of you who would rather have your brew quicker, Kickstarter has an option for you. Microsoft developer Bill Mitchell teamed up with his brother Jim and friend Avi Geiger to launch an PicoBrew Zymatic.

At a glance, it seems like the contraption has basically cut out any risk of user error… but don’t hold us to that.

At press time, PicoBrew’s is nearing three times their funding goal of $150,000. Co-founder Avi Geiger gave us some insight into the creativity and process behind the project:

Co-founder Avi Geiger

Core77: How did you come up with the technology behind this and why do you think it hasn’t been done before?

Avi Geiger: It comes down to having the right mix of people and the right mix of frustrations with the world. Usually when people try to automate brewing, they build complicated systems with multiple tanks, valves, little cranes and robotic arms to add hops. There are literally hundreds of homebuilt “automated” brewing systems—each one is different, most of them are very expensive. If one of these was the right answer for more people, then you would be able to buy it somewhere by now. Bill and Jim came at it from the product development and process side and developed a new system that allows for preloaded ingredients and automated fluid distribution without any valves. I came at it from the engineering side and collectively we worked together to get this into a compact and reliable package that takes this method and lets us brew beers to the quality standards of a professional brewer with the ease of use of a kitchen appliance.

Another reason it hasn’t been done before is that it’s just a ton of work to get all the details right and bring it to market. We’ve been working on this full time for over two years now. And there was a year of concept work before that. We’ve done hundreds of test batches to optimize the process. There are an incredible number of variables in beer production and picking the right set to work across was a pretty big step in itself.

(more…)