If you're making something for yourself and casting it in resin, you can probably live with the inevitable air bubbles that appear in the object. But if you're an industrial designer prototyping something a client's going to see, bubbles are a no-no. That's why professional prototypers like Eric Strebel use pressure casting. That's when you do the casting inside a pressure tank, hooking it up to a compressor and setting the interior at 60 p.s.i. or so, which'll squeeze those bubbles out of the resin.

Some pain points for Strebel are the lousy wingnut-handled screws on his pressure tank's clamps. So here he shows you how he whips up some more ergonomic knobs using 3D printing, urethane resin and the original clamp screws:

Earlier today, HAY design launched their exclusive Kitchen Market at the MoMA Design Store SoHo. We were overwhelmed and excited by the 250—yes, 250—piece collection designed by Mette Hay with items selected by Danish chef and restaurateur, Frederik Bille Brahe. The collection merges classic kitchen necessities with modern design, throwing in a few lovable oddities along the way. Whether purchased as a gift for friends, family or yourself, here are a few items we recommend. However, small home and apartment dwellers heed warning: form over organization potential is a major theme here.

Silicon treasures in the collection include the heat-resistant Rhom Trivet and a generously portioned ice cube tray.

Tow of the more decorative sub-collections are the cutting board family and the coffee family. We're envisioning these color-coded boards stacked nicely on a shelf or hung on a wall for easy grabbing, and the coffee line is aesthetically pleasing enough to leave out on display.

Simple, clean cutlery at a price point of around $29 for a set of five. 

Cups and accompanying plates in the collection feature materials ranging from paper-thin porcelain to elegant glass. We especially enjoy the playfulness of the porcelain family—those are some "paper" plates you wouldn't want to drop.

Three varieties of bottle openers add a nice functional touch. The latter image shows the German Bottle Opener, a more classic design that helps ground the collection.

I'm vehemently against single use kitchen products (garlic peelers, salad spinners, etc.), however if you're going to get one in this collection, let it be the Italian Hamburger Press. Go big or go home.

These salt and pepper grinders are straightforward and are subtle displayed on a table.

And finally, a system designed for bringing food on picnics. However, I see it being used as a space-saving way to transport food during car journeys (as long as the sides are secure enough when the containers are full). 

I admittedly had to leave the event before making some poor monetary and spatial decisions. If you're ready to expose yourself to some tough decision making, head on over to the MoMa Design Store in SoHo.

Yeah, so this is nuts: Valencia-based designer Fernando Abellanas wanted to "seek refuge from the city within the city itself," and picked the underside of a bridge—far above the ground—as a site for a studio. By welding up a steel frame with rollers resting on the bridge's crossbeams, he can even move the darn thing around.

Check this out:

Refugiarse de la ciudad en la propia ciudad. from JoseMP on Vimeo.

Via ArchDaily

At Design Miami, we had the opportunity to sit down with Alessi's President Alessio Alessi and his son Giovanni Alessi Anghini, an industrial designer. Traveling with their family, they were on the last stop of a U.S. trip to celebrate the opening of a new retail space for Alessi in the Miami Design District. Giovanni is one of four children and the first of the fourth generation to start working for the family business.

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Compâs makes composting at home easy! Composting in big cities (with few gardens or big spaces for it) is not very popular, making the garbage disposal cycle in Argentina overloaded and inefficient. This compost bin is designed for urban households. It is a vermicompost (worms are included!) where no direct contact with ground earth is required.

With a variety of colors, this composting kit blends in aesthetically with its surroundings (balconies, kitchens or patios). By making a compost bin that fits in a balcony or patio, people can start composting their organic waste at home. Our product encourages composting for those who need that extra push to start!

View the full project here

The internet is awash in self-shot eclipse footage, most of it pretty sucky. If you missed the live event itself, leave it up to the pros--NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and NASA--to give you the best views. First off, here's what the eclipse looked like from space, time-lapsed into four seconds:

And here's a clip shot in Beatrice, Nebraska, which shows you what it looked like from the ground, with that crazy false sunset. And be sure to wait for the zoom-in:

Here's #SolarEclipse2017 views of totality in Nebraska! Take a look here and watch our live show for more: https://t.co/cOKssim1bY pic.twitter.com/qFgqf3ZI2s

— NASA (@NASA) August 21, 2017 ">

If you're still kicking yourself that you missed it in person, or if you did witness it and want to repeat the experience, the Washington Post lets you punch in your age and shows you how many total eclipses you might live to see, and where they'll be. Click here.

Job Description Home Team Sports (HTS) is looking for a Creative Designer to join its team in New York. The Creative Designer will execute the creative direction and implementation of large-scale creative projects, as set by the VP and Manager of the Creative Partnerships team. He/She will

View the full design job here

Light plays an important role in the design of many hardware products. Often, they are both decorative and functional. Indicator lights are the most minimal user interface: They tell you whether the device is turned on, low on battery, or "thinking" really hard.

On modern electronics, the light's source is almost always an LED. However, you rarely see exposed LED components on the exterior of a device. What you do see is the exit surface of a light pipe (also known as a light guide).

Light pipes can focus, diffuse, or redirect light; most light pipes do some combination of these.

Design considerations include:

- Minimizing loss during transmission
- Minimizing the number of LEDs needed (they are power-hungry components that destroy battery life)
- Maximizing color mixing for RGB LEDs

In our teardowns, we've seen many light pipes—they're one of our favorite types of components because each one is so unique. Today, we want to dig deeper into some unique light pipe applications and explain the principles behind each design.

Application 1: Extending Light's Reach

As I mentioned, LEDs are power-hungry components. So for portable electronics, you should only use the light when the user is actively interacting with the device, and you'll want to minimize the number of LEDs needed. Light pipes can be used to extend the reach of LEDs so you can use fewer to achieve the same illumination effect. Here are two examples of how light pipes illuminate logos and thumb pads.

Example 1: Illuminated Logo of Under Armour Heart Rate Monitor

The UA heart rate monitor's front cover features a sizeable logo. The engineers behind this product managed to light up this logo evenly, with just one tiny top-firing LED at the center of the main PCBA. This LED doesn't have much reach by itself.

Under Armour LED

Enter the light pipe: It's made of a milky plastic that could be polycarbonate resin (normally transparent) with added titanium dioxide. The more titanium dioxide that's added, the more milky the plastic, which improves diffusion.

The cone-shaped cavity feature at the center of the light pipe is designed to match the LED; the angular wall of the cone helps to direct the emitted light into the light pipe.

The cone is the entry point of the light pipe, and the entry point should always be placed as close to the light source as possible, to minimize loss.

Light pipe diffuser

Let's see the actual effect of the light pipe:

1. Without the light pipe, there is a strong hot spot in the center of the logo and not much light elsewhere.

2. With the light pipe, the light emitted by the LED is spread out more evenly and the extreme hot spot is gone.

Under Armour LED without light pipe Under Armour LED with light pipe Example 2: Illuminated Thumb Pad of Logitech G600 MMO Mouse

The Logitech G600 MMO mouse has a twelve-button thumb pad. Each key is backlit, and the user can customize the light's color. How many LEDs do you think are used to light up all these keys?

The answer is TWO! Isn't that surprising? What wizardry!

The secret is side-firing LEDs that emit light directly into a flat plate of a light pipe. Notice how close the entry point of the light pipe is to the LEDs. You can't afford losses when the lights have a long way to go to their exit points.

Notice how the opposing elastomer thumb pad part has black paint spots on some keys, but not others? These black spots are close to the LED, likely to mask hot spots.

Also note that the light pipe plate is super glossy, and the surfaces encapsulating the light pipe's top and bottom sides are both white. Both of these features help maximize the total internal reflection and improve color mixing.

Application 2 - Bending Light

LEDs cannot always be located right behind the intended exit point of the lights, so light pipes are often used to transport light emitted by a board-mounted LED to an exit window some distance away. They can even "bend" light, as long as it's within the limitations of physics.

Here are a few examples:

Example 1: Neato Light "Arc"

This light pipe cradles the Neato's power button. It has two entry points for LEDs to illuminate the entire path evenly. The second LED is needed because light does not like to bend past 90 degrees. If only one LED were used, significant loss would happen where the second entry point is, and the end of the arc would be dark.

The entry points of the light pipe match the shape of the LEDs well.

Neato light pipe

Note that the top surface of the light pipe is textured, whereas all the other surfaces are glossy. Textured surfaces encourage light to exit, and glossy surfaces encourage internal reflection.

Also note that aluminum foil covers the underside of the light pipe. This has two purposes:

1. To maximize total internal reflection

2. To prevent users from seeing internal components underneath the light pipe

Example 2: TiVo Bolt Status Lights

The TiVo Bolt has five status indicator lights. For all of these, the light source had to be "bent" through light pipes to exit the enclosure.

One of these is a very classic "light pipe," a clear polycarbonate tube that's slightly bent to transport light from the source to the exit point at the logo. The entry point is a flat surface—this is a light pipe that has not been matched to the LED, incurring brightness loss. However, this simplifies the injection mold tooling of the light pipe.

TiVo light pipe

The other four indicator lights appear in a row.

TiVo indicator lights

This set-up uses a multi-unit light pipe—think of this as a multi-lane roadway! Each "roadway" has its own entry and exit points. The light sources are four surface-mounted LEDs in a row.

The light pipe is covered by a two-piece black shroud, which eliminates light leakage. Since the TiVo Bolt enclosure is white (not light-proof), without the shroud, we wouldn't be able to see each light distinctly.

Light pipe shroud Main Takeaways

We hope you enjoyed this "anthology" of light pipe examples. Put your own spin on these established designs, and add some shiny to your next project! Now that you have form factor inspiration, check out our guide to prototyping light pipes with 3D printing.

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This post is provided by Fictiv, the most efficient manufacturing platform for fabricating parts. Powered by a distributed network of highly vetted vendors, the online interface makes it easy for customers to get instant quotes, review manufacturing feedback, and manage orders—all through a single service.

As someone who learned to use CAD before Illustrator, I've always hated the pen tool. My first CAD jockey jobs required perfect tangency and precision, not these touchy-feely "handles" that provided weird parabolic arcs.

Maybe I'd have learned to use the tool better if "The Bezier Game" had existed back then. You can click on the link to try it out yourself, or watch the introductory video below to see what it consists of:

Admittedly it's less of a "game" and more of a tutorial, but until they can figure out how to work these exercises into "Call of Duty," I guess this will have to do.

[Spoilers.]

The episode starts with Jon Snow trying to give the Mormont family sword back to Ser Jorah.

"Your father gave me this sword. I think you should have it."

Ser Jorah sees through his ruse immediately.

"You just want me to carry it because it's heavy. Thanks but no thanks."

Ser Jorah knows how to travel in comfort. He's the only member of the group that's lined the straps of his backpack with animal fur, for ergonomic purposes.

"I've got a patent. Well, a patent pending. I'm going to call them JorahStraps. The market is potentially huge."

North of the Wall is supposed to be quite cold, and the ragtag group's cold-weather clothing is, well, ragtag.

"Oh thanks, you like it? I got it at a sample sale."

Not so Daenarys, who has a rather bad-ass cold-weather outfit.

"All I'm saying, my Queen, is that if you wear it on the dragon, you won't be able to return it!" "This isn't off-the-rack, you jackass, I can't return it anyway."

As for accessories, Daenarys has either found really well-fitting gloves, or she may have contracted Greyscale.

"I shook Ser Jorah's hand and forgot to wash it afterwards. He's like, 100% cured, right?"

Things don't go so well for our heroes up north, of course. They are beset upon by a group of undead and must run for their lives.

"Ha! I'm carrying this heavy sword and I can still run faster than Ser Jorah."

Eventually they find themselves surrounded.

"I have to pee, but they're all, like, staring at me. I can't go when people are staring at me, even undead ones."

How bad-ass is Beric Dondarrion's flame-on sword? He'd be a handy guy to have around, not only in a fight, but for the barbecuing applications.

"It's not a stupid idea, Beric. If we pull a snake over your sword like a condom, then you turn it on, we've got instant barbecued snake."

Speaking of flame, when the group is overrun, Daenarys comes to the rescue. Looks like her dragons have unerring aim.

"I'm not saying I'm not grateful, but Jesus, do they have to shoot it RIGHT above our heads? I can smell my hair burning."

Unfortunately for Viserion the dragon, the Night King was apparently an Olympic javelin thrower in his past life. By the bye, it this shot you can see they're all holding their own javelins:

"I never medaled. It's always haunted me."

Yet someone in the Night King's crew hands him a javelin when it's time to throw it.

"Thank you, Charles. Mine was more expensive than yours and I don't want to lose it."

He takes careful aim…

"'Not good enough,' my dad always said. Well how you like me NOW."

…and it doesn't end well for Viserion, who actually explodes in mid-flight.

"Is that Viserion, Rhaegal or Drogon? I know they're my kids but I'll be damned if I can tell them apart. Oh wait a sec, I'm riding Drogon so that can't be Drogon--RHAEGAL! Are you okay?"

While most of the group has clambered aboard Drogon to make a hasty exit, the death of one of Daenarys' dragons has soured the moment.

"This is our first dragon ride and now it's like, totally ruined."

They take off and leave Jon Snow behind, as the zombie version of Marshawn Lynch tackles him and sends him into the water. But as he begins to emerge from the ice, people on the internet claimed, the little lion head on the pommel of his sword opened its freaking eyes. I had to freeze-frame it to check and it's true:

"Zzzz...""Goddammit! I was having the best dream."

Jon is eventually rescued and makes it onto a ship to recuperate.

"I can't figure out..." "...what this ring-thing mounted to the bedpost is."

He and Daenarys share a moment, and I have to say, for a guy who's supposedly pretty outdoorsy, his hands look super-soft.

"I'm NOT being defensive, Daenarys. I'm just saying my hands feel soft to YOU because you're always grabbing onto scaly dragon spikes."

Back up north, a bit of bad news. The White Walkers have somehow managed to procure chains, and they're using them to pull the dead dragon out of the water.

"I AM TOO pulling, Jarvis, so shut up. I bet I'm pulling more than you are."

White Walker management staff simply observes.

"I'd help them, but I've got that thing with my knee. It's been acting up ever since the softball game."

By the way, have you ever paid attention to the White Walkers' undead horses? They're pretty gnarly looking.

"Whoa, girl. Or boy. I can't remember which one you are. Whatever, it's not important."

Only one episode left!

Flat surfaces with carefully planned cuts—with a single motion their purpose is revealed.

I graduated from a unique joint program for Computer Science at The Hebrew University and Industrial Design at Bezalel Academy. My project is a result of my studies, combined scientific research with aesthetics and leaves an opening to variety of potential applications.

My fascination of using mathematics as a tool to enhance design led me to the development of a new design and production form based on auxetic structures. Auxetics are structures or materials that when stretched, become thicker perpendicular to the applied force. This structure serves as the basis for planning cuts that provide the flat sheet with its potential third dimension.

Stainless steel hangerFrom 2D metal sheet to 3d hangerKinetic bamboo BagReacts to hand movement insideCredit: Oded AntmanKinetic bamboo Bagside viewCredit: Oded AntmanKinetic bamboo BagReacts to its varying content volumesCredit: Oded AntmanTextile partition - detailUnder gravity laws the parametrically designed textile partitions receive a three dimensional transformation.Credit: Oded AntmanHanger - stretching manipulationStretching manipulation - from 2D metal sheet to 3D handerKinetic bamboo BagKinetic bag, reacts to its varying content volumesHangerTextile partitionSphere mapping, 3D transformation detailCredit: Oded AntmanView the full project here

At this summer's 99U conference, Pentagram partner and designer Natasha Jen gave a presentation with an eye-catching title: "Design Thinking is Bullshit." This was actually the second time she'd given the talk—back in May Jen tweeted "Finally let it out of my system" after presenting it at HOWlive in Chicago—but video of it was never released, so few got to see it. But this month video of the 99U talk was finally made public:

Natasha Jen: Design Thinking is Bullshit from 99U on Vimeo.

What do you think? On the one hand I think Jen's correct in that distilling a complicated process into an easily-replicable formula isn't always possible, but on the other hand I see the "Design Thinking" introduction to businesses as a positive step towards fresh thinking. I had always assumed "Crit" was built into the process, but perhaps those of you with direct experience of a design-unsavvy business first attempting to integrate the process could speak to this.

I wholeheartedly agree with Jen's assertion that design is not merely a box to be checked, and I think the idea that anyone can be a designer will of course be anathema to practicing professionals. I also support her push for evidence, and on this note, if you're not already reading Design That Matters' series of posts, you ought to be!

Your thoughts on Jen's talk?

New Balance has a 100 year history of enduring performance and is still running strong today. Part of what makes New Balance so unique is our commitment to making products that not only provide performance but also superior fit and comfort. The same attention that is placed on our athletic shoes and apparel is also placed on our associates. We seek talented individuals that fit into our team-oriented atmosphere.

View the full design job here

Marking a revolution in the industry, the ease of installation, friendly shape, and lack of wires makes this a portable, affordable solution that opens up a new market of possible users and applications. Arlo cameras don’t rely on proximity to a wired power source and are easily ported to different locations, making them the first truly modular and renter-friendly solution. With no unsightly power cords, Arlo is unobtrusive and perfect for use in any home, office, or commercial space.

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Multi-bit drivers used to suck but have been greatly refined in recent years. Case in point—Klein's HVAC 8-in-1 Hex Head Slide Driver. To look at it you would think it's a nut driver, which for some reason has a knurled sleeve behind the head. But why?

The sleeve is a threaded lock for the magnetic head. Slide the head forward and it drives 5/16" hex fasteners; slide it back and it drives 1/4" hex fasteners—the most frequently used sizes in the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) trades. It's fast and convenient to use a sliding head because nut sizes can be changed without reversing the shaft or installing different sockets.

Klein has produced drivers to fit 1/4" and 5/16" hex fasteners for several years: a 6" fixed shaft slide driver, a stubby slide driver, and a driver with a reversible shaft. The 8-in1 model does what they do while offering additional options for driving.

The shaft can be pulled from the handle and reversed to expose a hollow end that fits 3/8" hex fasteners. A reversible hollow sleeve fits inside and can be used to hold or store a pair of reversible 1/4 hex shank tips, or used by itself to drive 1/4" hex head fasteners. 

The loose parts at the bottom store in the shaft.

Tips include #2 Phillips, 1/4" and 1/8" flat, and a bit to adjust TR-4 Shrader valves. You may be unfamiliar with the term but you have certainly seen a Shrader valve; it's the mechanism inside the valve stem of a bike or auto tire. The same type of valve is used for HVAC applications such as pressure testing gas lines and charging AC and refrigerator compressors.

There's nothing sacrosanct about the combination of hex shank tips that come with the HVAC 8-in-1 Hex Head Slide Driver; they could easily be swapped out for ones better suited to other tasks or trades.

This is a clever configuration that allows the HVAC mechanic to use a single tool for 8 types of fasteners and fittings. In a shop setting it might make sense to use 8 different tools but when working out of a tool pouch—as tradespeople frequently do on the jobsite—it's best to travel light and perform as many tasks as possible with a single tool. 

By now you've probably seen this image, which was created by Funny or Die:

While there's nothing funny about what happened at Charlottesville, more than a few pointed out the levity within the act of white supremacists presumably purchasing their torches at a Party City retail outpost.

Tiki Brand, the manufacturer of the torches, swiftly issued a statement distancing themselves from the Neo-Nazis wielding their products.

When some cried cultural appropriation, this got me thinking: Just where are Tiki torches from? So I did a little research.

First off, there is no Tiki people. Tiki is the name of the first human male in the Maori culture's creation myth; his counterpart in Christianity is Adam. Over time "tiki" was used to refer to stone or wood carvings, presumably of Tiki himself.

It was an American who introduced the notion of "tiki culture" to the 'States in the 1930s. Ernest Raymond Beaumont-Gantt, an adventurer who had spent years sailing around the Caribbean and the South Pacific, moved to Los Angeles in 1932. He started up a bar called "Don the Beachcomber," decorating it with Polynesian artifacts he'd collected on his journeys, and concocting a series of rum-based cocktails.

Beaumont-Gantt also served "exotic" Polynesian food, which was, hilariously, actually a series of Cantonese dishes. Considered exotic, Don the Beachcomber became a Hollywood hotspot, and what would later be called "tiki culture"—a marketing term if ever there was one—was born.

In the 1940s, following World War II, tiki-themed restaurants enjoyed a surge in popularity that persisted throughout the '50s and '60s. The iconic "tiki torch" was a mainstay of these "tiki bars" and "tiki restaurants," though there's no evidence nor record of who the original inventor might have been. Tiki Brand's website has only a vague mention of their origin:

In the 1950s, tiki culture was in full swing. Pacific Island-themed restaurants, bars and even living rooms were all the rage. At the height of tiki popularity, the first original TIKI® torch was produced, igniting a backyard tradition that still burns brightly over 60 years later.

That seems to indicate that that company's version of the torch was created in the '50s.

It's likely we'll never know what individual or tribe actually invented the tiki torch, or what its original name was. Meanwhile, internet sleuths are busy determining the identities of tiki-wielders that marched at Charlottesville with lightning-like speed.

What a time that we live in.

The Core77 team spends time combing through the news so you don't have to. Here's a weekly roundup of our favorite finds from the World Wide Web:

A look at one of the most fascinating motorcycles of the 1990s – the Britten V1000.

Here's how dumb we've become: This guy encounters a bear in his garage, first thing he grabs is his phone to record.

The world's largest floating solar farm is producing energy atop a former coal mine.

The nostalgic beauty of forgotten Pizza Huts. Speaking of nostalgic architecture... the forgotten artistic playgrounds of the 20th century.

An analysis of leaving downtown at rush hour in America's largest cities.

Quick-thinking driver narrowly escapes carjacking. 

An illustrated timeline of women's fashion every year from 1784-1970.

Roger Lee: Bay Area's modern architect for the common man.

Enjoy this soap opera series filmed in an IKEA store without letting anyone know first. The drama.Hot Tip: Discover more blazin' hot Internet finds on our Twitter and Instagram pages.

For those of us who are beginner or even intermediate level woodworkers, making a delicate box with a perfect finish is hard enough. Imagine that you get all of that done, and then the real work starts. If you've ever been to Korea, you may have seen some of these lacquered boxes inlaid with what looks like pearl or shells:

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Cardboard Helicopter Product Design has created an enclosure and base for a medical power pack. The pack has an exoskeleton made of stainless steel and injection molded plastic cover. Indicator and led screen to read out battery life and timer.

View the full content here

This stylish power tool improves the user experience and product semantics for non-professional users. The drill is designed by Yu-Chung Chang for Electrolux in Birmingham City University.

Electrolux DrillCredit: Yu-Chung ChangUnlock triggerCredit: Yu-Chung ChangDrills straight, collects dust, shows depthCredit: Yu-Chung ChangWorking with LEDCredit: Yu-Chung ChangScrew holderCredit: Yu-Chung ChangStanding on tableCredit: Yu-Chung ChangChargerCredit: Yu-Chung ChangLuxury packagingCredit: Yu-Chung ChangLuxury packagingCredit: Yu-Chung ChangView the full project here