Tech NewsDesign

This Tron-like World Trade Center Is My Everything

I’ll be perfectly honest with you. I didn’t really like the design of the new World Trade Center, when it first won approval. It seemed basic. But I watched it rise, and I saw it start to shine, catching reflections of the surrounding downtown skyscrapers. I realized I’d missed something early on. French illustrator Romain … Continued

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Work in the Big City From the Comfort of Home With This Skyscraper Desk

When it comes to fancy designer desks, apparently storage space and drawers are completely passé. After all, do you really need a place to stash a stapler when your work surface appears to magically float over a pair of cities full of towering skyscraper? No, you don’t. That being said, it might be hard to … Continued

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12 Sinister Movie Posters From the Golden Age of Film Noir

“She was part-good before—SHE’S ALL BAD NOW!” “From the moment they met it was Murder!” “Blood-red kisses! White-hot thrills!” No other style of cinema mastered sensational taglines better than film noir, and posters from the genre’s mid-century heyday are a goddamn dark delight. Film Noir 101 is a new book from Fantagraphics that collects some … Continued

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This Desk Tidy Folds Into Shape From a Sheet of Laser-Cut Steel

This neat, angular desk tidy is truly 3D—but it hasn’t always been that way. In fact, it’s put together from a 0.8mm-thick carbon steel, laser-cut beforehand to make it easy to fold into shape. Some thorough investigation went into putting this thing, called .ORG, together. In fact, its designers spent hours working out how to … Continued

Tech NewsDesign

Why Ikea’s Mostly Computer Generated Catalog Will Soon Be the Norm

The rooms in Ikea’s catalogs may look like wonderlands of inexpensive furniture, but they’re mostly computer generated. Like, 75 percent computer generated. The Swedish juggernaut has experimented with CG product shots for almost a decade now, and it’s getting incredibly good at it. But it’s far from the only company doing it. We learned about … Continued

Tech NewsDesign

Every Ikea Catalog Cover Since 1951

It’s that time of year: If you’re one of the hundreds of millions people on Ikea’s mailing list, you probably recently received a thick square of super-thin paper filled with (mostly rendered) products. Ikea has been sending these babies out for more than six decades—and you can follow the evolution of popular design just by … Continued

Tech NewsDesign

These Philippe Starck Bicycle Helmets Look Too Good to Wear

With their slinky curves, space-age visors and sleek polished metallic finish, you’d be forgiven for thinking that these helmets were part of the costume design for a futuristic movie. Nope, they’re just Philippe Starck’s bicycle helmets. Citing the world of motorcycling as his source of inspiration, Starck has teamed up with California-based Giro to create … Continued

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A Beautiful Nordic Coffee Machine That’s Pre-Approved for Snobs

If you’re what many would consider a coffee “snob,” you might prefer to brew your elixir using the manual pour-over method for ultimate control. This Norwegian machine provides the convenience of automation with the quality of a pour-over in one pretty striking package. There are only a few consumer coffee machines that can adequately duplicate … Continued

Tech NewsDesign

This Slim Engagement Ring Case Slips Right Into Your Back Pocket

There are an infinite number of ways to do a marriage proposal. Regardless of what comes before, many of them climax in the big reveal of a fancy ring in a bulbous velvet box that, while traditionally classy, isn’t exactly discrete. Packaging designer Andrew Zo streamlined that somewhat clunky exterior into Clifton, a clever, leather-bound … Continued

Tech NewsDesign

Dice Furniture Changes Form and Function When You Roll It

You can actually change how any piece of furniture looks just by flipping it over or tossing it onto its side. But the Dice, created by the talented designers at Torafu Architects, also changes functionality depending on how you orient it. It’s a clever and unique approach to furniture design that can expand a piece’s … Continued

Tech NewsDesign

The City Pipes and Stairways That Get Left Behind and Lead to Nowhere

Cities, like living things, evolve slowly over time. Buildings and structures get added and renovated and removed, and in this process, bits and pieces that get left behind. Vestiges. Just as humans have tailbones and whales have pelvic bones, cities have doors that open into a limb-breaking drop, segments of fences that anyone can walk … Continued

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Watch This Cloud Of Rusty Balls Shape-Shift Into an Airborne Labyrinth

The last time we checked in with Plebian Design and Hypersonic, the creative teams had installed an interactive map chandelier in Washington DC that glowed in time with different data sets. For their latest trick, they turned the lobby of a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company into a similarly mind-bending, shape-shifting display. Breaking Wave is a … Continued

Tech NewsDesign

A Wooden Hammock Looks Incredibly Classy (and Maybe a Little Pinchy)

A stained wood Adirondack chair can class up any deck, and it turns out a stained wood hammock can do the same for a backyard. This impressive creation, called the Para Hammock, still features an intricate web of cords (in this case, strong nylon parachute cord)—but here they’re used to support over 700 tiny tiles … Continued

Tech NewsDesign

11 Clever Ways Cities Are Taking Advantage of Public Space

A garden skyscraper. A sidewalk library. A floating pool. A DIY bike park. These are some of the finalists in the Place By Design competition announced today by SXSW Eco, a new sustainability conference by the organizers of SXSW. Which one makes the greatest impact on a city? Finalists for the competition were selected across … Continued

Tech NewsDesign

A Guide to the Golden Age of Corporate Logo Design

NASA. Audi. ABC. Lufthansa. The MTA. Beginning in the 1960s, some of the world’s best-known corporate entities were immortalized thanks to the work a group of graphic designers who were responsible for introducing to the notion of “branding.” And now, there’s an anthology that collects them all in one place. It’s not that branding didn’t … Continued

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Watch How an Emmy Statuette Comes to Life

Before the Emmy winners are announced tonight and they grasp their shiny trophy on stage in front of millions, each one of those statuettes began as a pool of pure virgin metal, liquified at 700 degrees. That’s hot. The team at Chicago-area R.S. Owens has been manufacturing the awards for 38 years, and this short … Continued

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Why Ikea Is Ditching Giant Parking Lots

Ikea is synonymous with the suburbs; part of the furniture shopping ritual has always included an often-lengthy drive to a industrial or semi-rural area of your town. But this summer, the company is testing out a new paradigm for its empire: Stores in the city. With far fewer spots for cars. This week, Bloomberg sent … Continued

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7 New Materials That Could Change How Our Buildings Act

The gap between material science and actual construction is very far and very wide. It can take decades to move a breakthrough in engineering from a lab to a building site. But as architects and engineers face bigger challenges—from earthquakes to dwindling resources to sheer cost—a new generation of smart materials is emerging. Over the … Continued

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These Lamps Are a Sleek Modern Take on Industrial Lighting

Look around hip London or Manhattan coffee shops and restaurants, and you’ll know that big, heavy lampshades of industrial light fittings are in right now. But these stripped-back lights provide a nod to that style—with a lighter, modern feel. The Slims Collection of lamps by Tel-Aviv-based Studio Beam is a contemporary take on the industrial … Continued

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This Mooring Tool Is Next-Level Design Sorcery

Every now and then, a bit of engineering comes by that is both deeply simple, and beautifully complex. This tool for hooking the mooring lines of boats onto a dock cleat is flat-out mesmerizing. Securing boats by mooring lines onto dock cleats, buoys, or anything else isn’t exactly a complicated task: wrap the line around … Continued