Now that film is almost obsolete, you’re probably wondering what to do with that beautiful old Minolta taking up precious space in your desk drawer. Well, have you ever considered building furniture out of it? This crew of crafty Chinese designers has.
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And you thought your last move was difficult. The process of moving a large building, from a mansion to a railway station, from one location to another is a major engineering challenge. Here are some eye-popping photos of massive structures in transit.
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I can’t decide if this angular Skull Armchair designed by French artist Harold Sangouard is just gaudy or awesome, horrible or pretty, vanguardist or Louis XV/Conan the Barbarian retro, but there’s something about it that hypnotizes me.
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The World Expo Milano 2015 is still a few years years off, but details about the pavilions are starting to emerge. Today, we learn that a building sponsored by agricultural machinery company New Holland will feature a sloping rooftop field farmed by two "zero-emission, robotized, self-driving tractors."
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Any cat owner knows just how much cats love human laps. Now you can switch things up and sit on their lap for a change with this massive cat couch. This huge feline comes from Unfold, a design studio in Antwerp, Belgium and it is a cat lovers dream come true.
I call it a couch, but Unfold thinks of it as more of a sculpture. It is appropriately called Felix Domesticus. This is just one of five cat-themed elements of an art installation that the studio assembled in 2010. The 3.5-meter long cat takes up residence in an apartment’s master bedroom, while visitors to the exhibit can sit on it. I wonder what a small house cat would think about this?
Now if they only sold these things, we could all sit and lay on a giant cat, without getting fur all over our clothes.
[via Rocket News 24 via Neatorama]
After months of rumblings about a standalone slate, Wacom finally unveiled not one, but two tablets back in September. On paper, the Cintiq Companion may be the more compelling mobile workstation, just because it runs Windows, but first, we’re taking a long, hard look at the Cintiq Companion Hybrid. Whereas the other runs Windows, this one is powered by Android and packs a top-of-the-line Tegra 4 chip to help you get work done on the go. Of course, when tethered to a laptop or desktop machine back in the studio, the unit also serves as a traditional pen display like the Cintiq 13HD — but with multitouch gestures.
Creative types are already familiar with Wacom’s prices, but the real question is whether the ability to use it as a mobile device is worth an even higher premium. With a stablemate that’s capable of running a full version of Photoshop, is the Hybrid worth the added investment over the similarly sized 13HD pen tablet? Or are you better off paying more for the Cintiq Companion with Windows instead? %Gallery-slideshow122586%
Filed under: Peripherals
I’ve always wondered exactly how modern concept cars are actually designed. In years past, artists went to work with clay and molded the shape of a car by hand. I assumed that most of this process was now done with computers. Apparently, a mix of the two is more accurate for modern concept cars like the Cadillac Elmiraj.
GM has announced that 3D scanning was a big part of the design process for the car. GM used a 3D scanning process that projected light patterns and used an advanced camera to capture 3D shapes and turn those shapes into mathematical data. That mathematical data was then used to create a 3D rendering.
Once those math-based models were achieved, the hand modeling in clay and computer milling took over. Changes made to the mathematical model for the concept were applied to the clay model using computer controlled milling. This process allows GM to move from a scale model to a full size model in about a week.
“With the Elmiraj, we were able to use 3-D scanning as the bridge between traditional hand-sculpting teams who work in clay and digital modeling design teams who work in math,” said Frank Saucedo, director of General Motors’ North Hollywood Advanced Design Studio. “Our ability to scan the clay model with speed and precision and go from the digital tools to the hands of a craftsman and vice versa was extremely valuable.”
As you curse the rat’s nest of terminals, walkways, and people movers of whatever transit hub you’re using to get home this week, it’s easy to forget how extraordinarily sophisticated the average airport is. They’re works of art, really—but they’re nothing compared to the airport concepts artists have dreamt up over the last 100 years.
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When it comes to flying creations, inspiration is often gathered from a common pool of creatures: birds, insects, maybe a dragon or two. Researchers at New York University went a more unconventional route, and designed a flying robot based on, of all things, a jellyfish. The robot doesn’t need water to pull off its gravity-defying […]
The thing about exercise is that it’s hard to keep at it if you don’t have anything that’s motivating you to keep going. For some people, it’s fitting into a dress in time for someone’s wedding. For others, it’s simply a lifestyle choice.
Helping people on their path to stronger grips is Muscle Guy.
It’s basically a hand strengthening tool that comes with a comedic inflatable attachment. Each squeeze of Muscle Guy’s legs will transform an otherwise wrinkly-looking Muscle Guy into a figure with a buff and well-sculpted body.
Squeezing the handles to exercise the hand muscles causes air to fill an inner cavity. When the tool is used continuously, the muscle man fully inflates. He deflates when the tool is not used. This psychological hint should encourage regular exercise.
It’s neat in the sense that it gives you a preview of your rewards, should you choose to continue exercising. Muscle Guy is a Red Dot Design Award 2013 winner and was designed by Jia Siyuan, Zheng Dongping, and Xuan Xinle.
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