This ThinBike 2.0 is by Antonius Glufke, an Industrial Design student at Germany's Hochschule (University of Applied Sciences) Magdeburg-Stendal.

Glufke has paid extra attention to the bike's offline life, i.e. how it's stored:

"The Thin Bike is a bicycle specifically designed for use in large cities. Its slim design makes it easy to store in a apartment or workplace, taking up minimal space and reducing the risk of theft. Special features include a foldable handlebar and pedals, to minimize the bike's overall volume."

"It´s equipped with a Pinion gearbox and a Gates Carbon Drive system, paired with a motor from MAHLE, allowing it to be used with electric assistance while still enabling gear shifts. Lightskin provides integrated lights. Optional features include a front rack, fenders, and a range extender."

The project was done in partnership with German manufacturer Schindelhauer Bikes.

You might think sourcing wood in New York City is a challenge. But furniture maker Richard Haining doesn't visit a hardwood supplier; instead he avails himself of "the abundance of wood being discarded throughout NYC, from woodshop offcuts to old growth lumber scrapped from the pre-war buildings of NYC's architectural landscape. This 'waste' has become the building blocks of his signature STACKED Collection."

Haining salvaged a bunch of California Redwood pieces from decommissioned NYC Water Towers. The resultant material was incorporated into this STACKED 10-Bulb Chandelier:

The chandelier is 36" in diameter, and its ten LED bulbs are all fully dimmable. The piece is for sale (price undisclosed), but is obviously a one-off as opposed to a production piece.

The other lighting pieces in Haining's STACKED series are also worth a gander:

Plenty more to see here.

Books are like people, in that they need to lean on each other for support. When you remove a book from a shelf, or from between two bookends, the neighboring books close the gap by leaning.

While aesthetically displeasing, leaning books isn't a huge problem for most of us. But unsurprisingly a designer in Japan—a country obsessed with UX—has designed a way around this. This Firm Book End, from stationery brand Lihit Lab, allows books and other book-shaped media to stand on their own.

The flip-down stoppers are gravity-activated. Units can be linked side to side, allowing users to select the overall length. Rubber feet on the bottom prevent the unit from sliding.

The one shown above is A5 size, and there's a larger A4 version too, shown below.

The A5 runs ¥1,300 (USD $9) , and the A4 is ¥2,300 (USD $15).

Here's an interesting way to solve a problem with form. Your typical projector comes with adjustable feet or an adjustable stand in order for you to select the appropriate angle of projection. But this PlayCube Projector, by Chinese manufacturer TCL, borrows from a certain popular puzzle to provide angle adjustments:

"Inspired by the Rubik's Cube, TCL PlayCube Projector has a unique rotating mechanism, bringing fun to home and outdoor use. Its compact cube design delivers 750 ISO lumen high-quality projection, with flexible angle adjustments through a patented rotation, requiring no external stand."

This seems like one of those ideas that looked great at the napkin stage. I imagine in real life it would be fiddly to use; the rotating mechanism needs to be "sticky" enough to hold its position, yet smooth enough to allow for fine adjustments.

TCL says the PlayCube will hit the market later this year, though they've yet to announce pricing.

A British startup called Longbow Motors, formed by ex-Tesla and -Lucid employees, aims to create lightweight EVs that harken back to traditional British sports cars. They've unveiled two of their designs, a no-windshield Speedster and a fixed-roof Roadster, that seem to blur the line between footwear design and automotive design:

Longbow calls these aluminum-framed designs "an entirely new species: the Featherweight Electric Vehicle (FEV)." The company is obsessed with making the cars as lightweight as possible, and claim the Speedster will be 895 kg (1,973 lbs), the Roadster 995 kg (2,193 lbs).

"Adding lightness is the open secret to true speed — not just in a straight line, but in every nuance of motion. Weight invites complexity, blunts agility and dulls the senses."

"Speed, agility and safety are inseparable — each shaped by the artistry of lightweight engineering."

With 0-62 mph figures in the mid-3-second range for both cars, Longbow hopes the vehicles will deliver "nimble agility and near-weightless poise, evoking the effortless thrill that defined Britain's most legendary sports cars."

Both vehicles are projected to have a range around 275 miles. The Speedster is expected to retail for £84,995 (USD $110,009) , while the Roadster is a bit easier on the wallet at £64,995 (USD $84,123). Longbow says the hand-built cars will be on the market next year.

These eye-catching glass cubes are by Articolo Studios, an Australian design studio. They're created by pouring molten glass into wooden molds whose surfaces have been gouged by hand to create the texture.

The glass blocks are then integrated into the company's new Cubo line of lighting:

"Cubo [is an] exploration in contrasts—juxtaposing precision machined materials with the soulful poeticism of the handcrafted, solidity with transparency, strong geometry, with textural chromatic refractions. The result is a collection of nine wall sconces and pendants that unite in concentric, geometric form yet offer a diversity of configurations and chromatic and textural light and shadow interactions."

"The unadorned geometry of Cubo feels architectonic and grounded."

The collection is due to be officially unveiled next month at the Salone.

You've surely jotted a sketch or notes on the back of a junk mail envelope. And there's a reason the "napkin sketch" is a trope among designers. Any flat sheet that will take ink is fertile ground for a designer when their dedicated sketchbook is in an inconvenient location.

A company called Resketch, backed by design studio Skaaren Design, has noticed. Their mission is to find sources of perfectly good but discarded paper from various industries, then make notebooks and notepads out of them.

To be clear, the sheets aren't blank, though they do have usable blank surface area. The company sources their paper from architecture firms, printers, schools and businesses. That means the paper bears the marking of architectural plans, maps, technical documents, misprinted lines and grids, et cetera. Rather than this being annoying, the company reckons the existing markings "can help unlock creativity with a sense of discovery and play by providing an unexpected and fluid medium that gently challenges you."

You might wonder why they don't just use recycled paper. The reason is energy conservation. "Paper recycling is energy - and chemical-intensive," they write. "Worse, paper fibers break down after 5-7 cycles, eventually becoming waste.

We rescue and reclaim paper BEFORE it hits the recycling or waste stream. We turn perfectly unused paper into one-of-a-kind notebooks that spark creativity. This means:Less waste - because we're using what already existsLess energy & chemicals - because we're skipping the recycling processMore creativity - because every page is unique, just like your ideas

Would it be annoying, to have to sketch or take notes around existing printed marks? Maybe. Depends on if you're already used to sketching around the logos on junk mail and napkins.

Here's what we looked at this week:

Volkswagen previews their €20,000 electric car, designed with "likeable" looks.

Fantastic UX design details in this Zilch bike pump.

British company Power Roll has developed a solar-harvesting film that they say will be cheaper and easier to install than traditional solar panels.

Early UI design: The world's first keyboard was invented for deaf-mutes in 1865.

"100 Ideas in Consumer Electronics," PSFK's free report on design trends in the sector.

Which popular cars get into accidents most frequently?

'90s design classic: Gaetano Pesce's Umbrella Chair.

In Brazil, an apartment building with swimming pool balconies.

Criaturas Infinitas: Getting kids to play and make things irl using pool noodles, not digital stuff.

Guess why this doorway is shaped like this.

Industrial Design student work: A walker for seniors with pets.

Cybex's Solution G2 is a high-end adjustable, foldable child car seat.

Fun with form: ID firm Intenxiv's cosmetic package designs.

Eye Candy: A flashlight concept that doubles as a reading lamp, by industrial designer Onurhan Demir.

This aftermarket Cybertruck shows that you can't fix a flawed design by adding more.

UX rethink: From Japan, a physical timer with a progress bar.

Vaarnii's pine veneer pendant lamps, based on the techniques of Swedish industrial designer Hans-Agne Jakobsson.

Industrial design case study: Zenpack tackles high-end coffee package design for BigFace.

Coffee used to come in cans or bags, now it comes in little plastic totes. But when package design specialists Zenpack learned of the challenges faced by upstart coffee brand BigFace, the firm knew something more special was required.

BIGFACE Coffee

Pushing beyond the boundaries of coffee packaging to cause big smilesZenpack joined forces with creative studio Brandmonger to develop and produce otherworldly packaging for BIGFACE, the culture-shifting coffee brand founded by Miami Heat All-Star Jimmy Butler. In the NBA bubble of 2020, out of a passion for coffee and community, Butler began selling coffee to other players out of his hotel room. Taking the internet by storm, Jimmy's support among friends and fans was overwhelming, and his side hustle began to take shape. Butler enlisted Brandmonger to contextualize his idea into BIGFACE, but they needed a manufacturer to bring their big dreams to life.The ProblemBrandmonger's goal was to push beyond the boundaries of coffee packaging to imagine the impossible, with renders too good to be true. The resulting concept truly seemed just that…impossible. They forged ahead searching far and wide for a manufacturer that would take on the challenge of creating a one for one recreation of a box that seemed it could only exist in the digital realm.The OutcomeWhen all hope seemed eclipsed by technical absurdities and manufacturing constraints, Zenpack came to the rescue. With a new alliance, came a new hope. And pushing past a gauntlet of design-imposed obstacles and stringent construction constraints, we sourced the perfect materials, innovated embossing techniques, and did the unthinkable: We took their impossible box, and brought it into the physical world.

ChallengesUltimately, due to the ultra-precise nature of the design, the entire packaging system presented multiple challenges. We were determined to achieve perfect edges, hyper-tactile embossing, and unique bags while simultaneously keeping the beans fresh. We set out to create packaging too good to throw away.The emboss proved our first challenge. The dimensionality conceptualized in the renders, combined with the thickness of material, required a not-so-standard precision tool to push the logos far enough out of the surface to create the desired effect. We tested this effect over 30 times with different inks, coatings, and materials until we found the perfect three that would become Silver, Black, and White boxes.

Rather than finding something off-the-shelf, we knew we needed to develop a completely custom bag to fit the unexpected proportions of the box. With an unconventional landscape orientation, the bag would surely stand out in a crowded coffee market, yet maintaining coffee bean quality was essential.For the exterior labels, coffee lovers value detailed information about the beans. The BIGFACE labels are the one temporal aspect to the packaging and are designed to be rotated as coffees change seasonally. But that didn't mean they couldn't feel special with a combination of Pantones, finishes, and substrates to maintain brand potency. We focused our efforts on developing a system for perfect sticker placement, every application.

SolutionThe depth of the logo emboss at scale created a problem of its own. The embossed areas could be pushed back in if mishandled. We explored beyond packaging and enlisted a special technique similar to puff embroidery, filling the negative space with paper pulp, ensuring that the raised areas stay raised, forever.That covered the front of the box, but where other boxes may rely on the front to do all the work, this box needed to pull its weight from any angle.Painstaking precision was paid to every facet, using double folded corners that are knocked flat to create perfect edges, seams, and closures resulting in an effect usually reserved for luxury electronics packaging.We used a matte PP film to soften the feeling of these larger-than-life boxes, bringing a premium aspect to the finished products. An anti-scuff coating ensures that a material like the mirrored paper, which would otherwise show every scratch or mark, remained pristine after handling.

The resealable bags fit perfectly into the boxes, providing an extra unboxing surprise. The tolerances for the bag corner radii were so specific, consistently precise production required a custom mold to stamp and further fuse the seams, ensuring an airtight seal. A one-way degassing valve, affectionately titled the "airlock" allows for any gases produced by the coffee oxidization process to escape to maintain peak freshness.We experimented with various transparent materials and treatments for the perfect balance between translucent and opaque, creating a space-age visual effect for the BF-IO.F (Filter) & BF-IO.E. (Espresso). For BF-X (Blends), we took a different approach and utilized a mylar-type material to create a bag that could bounce light and even serve as a mirror for your smile.

Each of the three boxes is designed to give the customer a slightly different experience. When the Silver Box—which obscures a lighter roasted filter coffee—is opened, the eyes are met with a pleasing and unexpected semi-translucent white bag, offering the perfect foil to the reflective outer shell. The matte Black Box, on the other hand, contains an espresso roast, doubling down on the dark side to reveal a semi-translucent black bag. The White Box holds a multi-origin blend of coffees, delighting the beholder with an intensely reflective foil bag that distorts and bends light like a wormhole.The Labels on the exterior of these boxes are designed to give just enough information to the consumer: coffee farm/name, tasting notes, country of origin, and process.For full analysis the consumer is directed to a unique QR code that leads to more information around the coffee including satellite imagery of the farm. Each exterior label is hand-applied using a custom-made jig, ensuring precise placement across all boxes.Finally, we developed The Failsafe Security sticker—which serves a secondary purpose of displaying the roast date—through many iterations to deliver the perfect tearing experience worthy of any ASMR enthusiast. Upon breaking the Failsafe seal and lifting the top of the box, the customer is greeted with "WE HAVE LIFTOFF".

ResultThe packaging is so audaciously ambitious it must be seen to be believed. Every aspect of the package was considered, ensuring a second to none customer experience in the coffee space. Since launching, BIGFACE continues to orbit the planet, delivering perfectly roasted beans and dropping collab after collab. In addition to their roasts, BIGFACE released a bespoke streetwear line, reusable drinking vessels, and limited edition coffee scales, drippers, and grinders with Fellow. The packaging itself was awarded Gold at the iF Desgn Awards, Platinum and Gold at the Pentawards, Third Place at the Dieline Awards, and Runner Up at the Core77 Design Awards.

You can see more of Zenpack's work here.

Finnish furniture brand Vaarnii makes everything out of locally-available pine. The majority of their work that we've looked at here have been chunky and Brutalist. But for the company's foray into lighting, they've taken a page from the portfolio of Hans-Agne Jakobsson, a Swedish industrial designer prominent in the mid-20th century.

Jakobsson was a pioneer in using wood veneers in lighting, as with this table lamp:

Vaarnii has borrowed the technique to produce their Hans Pendant series.

"Pine is used efficiently," the company writes of Jakobsson's techniques. "Its tone and grain are employed to maximum effect in designs that project material mass but boast actual lightness. Vaarnii has re-engineered three of Jakobsson's pendant designs using solid Finnish pine to support circular strips of high-quality pine veneer, reintroducing these classic 20th century designs to the market after decades of absence."

The company's Hans Pendant lamp series have their diameter in centimeters indicated in the model name. The 1001 Hans Pendant 38 features a beehive profile:

The ovoid-profile 1002 Hans Pendant comes in two sizes, a 46 and an XL 70:

Finally, the diamond-profile 1003 Hans Pendant comes in a 60 and XL 90 version.

The company points out that not only is each light unique, due to variations in the veneer, but that the color of each lamp will change as it ages.

Let's say you arrive to work at 10am, and you're awaiting a 10:30am meeting. After a while you glance at the image below.

Depending on what generation you are, you have a sense of how much time has passed since you arrived, and how much time is left until your appointment. Those of us who've grown up with analog clocks instinctively turn those pie slices into graspable measures of time.

This VBT10 or Visual Bar Timer, however, seems targeted at the generation that grew up watching progress bars on screens. The rectilinear design provides a clear, linear indication of the proportion of time that has elapsed relative to the time you set.

The product is by Japanese stationery manufacturer King Jim. The progress bar's directionality, as you can watch in the video below, may seem strange to Westerners; rather than starting empty and filling from left to right, the bar starts filled in, then empties from right to left. (This may be due to the design's Japanese provenance; Japanese traditional media is read from right to left.)

The back is magnetic.

The Visual Bar Timer runs ¥2,970 (USD $20).

Mansory is a German company that tricks out exotic cars, largely for clients in Dubai. Their work consists of bolting extraneous, functionless extra parts onto vehicles in an effort to create visual interest. As an example, here's a Land Rover Defender from the firm:

It's like they're trying to port the vehicle into an anime movie, or increase the rendering cost by adding extra surfaces purely for the sake of it. Despite the hackneyed attempt, you can at least still make out the original lines and gesture of the Defender, as the vehicle's underlying design is sound, aesthetically speaking.

However, this more-is-more approach breaks down with their take on the Tesla Cybertruck:

Their goal in tacking these extra parts on was to "push the martial appearance of the vehicle a little further into the extreme," the firm says, which is presumably what Dubai-based millionaires are looking for. If anything, however, I think the add-ons merely highlight the awful underlying form of the truck. The more I look at it, the more it looks like it was designed in a single afternoon by someone with no design training.

Even more cringeworthy: This vehicle modification is called the "Elongation" (italics ours).

This rechargeable flashlight concept is by Turkish industrial designer Onurhan Demir.

The simple idea is that when placed on its main lens/base, the side flips out and serves as a reading lamp.

Demir's got a nice eye for form; it's a pity this is just a concept.

Demir designed it as part of a challenge for Render Weekly.

South Korean industrial design firm Intenxiv did these cosmetic package designs for their own RMRP product label. Thus far the line consists of lipstick, perfume and a hand cream, with at least two packaging options per product.

"Cosmetics go beyond mere functionality—they create a sensory experience," writes the firm. "The new @rmrp.kr beauty line reinterprets this experience through a seamless design flow."

"Just as texture blends into the skin, fragrance disperses into the air, and color merges naturally onto the lips, we applied surface transitions to shape each product."

"The surfaces capture and reflect light in unique ways, creating different expressions from every angle."

"While the three products each have their own distinct character, they are seamlessly connected through a unified design language."

It's not clear which of the design variants will go into production, but if they do, that'll be the first time I've heard of an ID firm that had their own fragrance!

Cybex, a German manufacturer of strollers and child car seats, has designed a foldable version of the latter. Their Solution G2 collapses for easier transport and storage, knocking roughly a third off of its volume.

The 12.8-lb (5.8kg) seat looks less like a child's car seat and more like an expensive piece of office furniture. The headrest and side wings are adjustable, the idea being that it can grow with your child; the company cites 4+ as the target ages. Additionally, both the seatback and the headrest can recline.

On the safety front, the seat is designed with an energy-absorbing shell and headrest, which the company says confers a 20% safety increase in a side impact.

These run $200 to $300.

This Toos concept is by Industrial Design students Jeoung Rae Kim, Shua Bong and Seunghee Lee, of South Korea's Hyupsung University. Collectively they call themselves Comma.

"As more people get older and have pets, pets have become like friends or family to older people. But most walking aids for seniors only have space for carrying bags or for the person to sit and rest, so it's hard for them to comfortably bring their pets along."

"To solve this problem, we suggest a new product that combines a pet carrier with a walking aid. It has a special space for pets and a seat where the person can rest."

As someone who is getting older, and who has recently had to put multiple infirm dogs to rest, this is certainly something I can and would use in the future. It is heartbreaking to see elderly dogs who want to be outside, but whose infirmities make long walks impractical.

This image has been making the rounds. Assuming it isn't AI generated—is it just me, or does the perspective in the room beyond look funky?—any guesses as to why a door would be modified in this way?

A Redditor claiming to know states: "This is for blackboards/whiteboards to be wheeled into and out of the room."

Perhaps that's true. My next question is: How did they handle the header? Do you reckon it's just been moved above the highest point of the opening?

Criaturas Infinitas (Infinite Creatures) is a Spanish organization with a noble goal: Get kids to play and create physical things using non-digital means. Led by designers Eva Gordo and Fernanda Tenorio, the organization has developed a series of connectors that turn pool noodles into structural and gestural elements.

The organization has set up a free installation in Madrid this month, Universo Criaturas (Universe of Creatures) where kids can engage with the system directly. Hosted at the Matadero Madrid, an arts and cultural center, the installation is divided into three areas, to meet the needs of children and families at different skill levels and ages:

Villa Calma (calm town) is a quiet space where big ideas are formalised on a small scale. Here the building blocks are smaller than in the other areas to encourage the development of fine motor skills.

Secondly, 'Living Corner' is an atelier for inventing shelters and inhabiting new worlds. In this area, participants can design and inhabit their own structures using large pieces.

Finally, the 'Creatures Laboratory' is an area for researching new creatures, where extraordinary creatures can be brought to life, costumes can be created and characters can be invented with a mirrored catwalk to meet them.

[Our work], which is constantly evolving, continues its research by understanding play as a way of inhabiting the world with wonder and creativity, fundamental for development and growth, with the intention of recovering it in the public space and in everyday life. Criaturas Infinitas focuses on both children and adults, seeking a curious view of transformation and creative fun, and promoting public, inclusive and diverse play contexts.

You can learn more about the organization here.

This VIW Building, by Brazilian architects Ivan Ventura and Yuri Vital, has some rather unusual balconies.

Sited on the coast of the Brazilian city of Ubatuba, the 27-unit building allows residents to take a dip without actually traveling to the beach. (Which seems a shame, as the beach is literally across the street, but that's humanity for you.)

"The pools are not merely leisure elements," writes the design team, "they are reflections of the fusion between nature and contemporary architecture." They say the zigzag profile of the pools was inspired by "the majestic winding mountains that surround Ubatuba."

Back in the '90s, industrial designers had free reign to produce things that were fun and whimsical, bordering on silly. This Umbrella Chair, designed by Gaetano Pesce and manufactured by Italy's ZeroDisegno, is a good case in point:

In 1995, the aluminum and polyurethane chair won an award from Interior Design magazine.

One thing that was apparently not a criteria for the judges: The quality of the molds. Or perhaps the polyurethane hasn't stood the test of time.