#product design

#product design

The portable power station market has grown considerably over the last few years, and with that growth has come a predictable flood of look-alike black rectangles. They're useful, sure. But they're mostly garage gear, things you pull out during a power outage or scramble to pack the night before a camping trip.

What's really helpful about school is that it helps you learn the process. But there are so many ways to learn the process and, especially with AI tools today, you can just get your friends together and make stuff.

In Braque's paintings, collages, and prints, the polymath set out to distill bucolic landscapes and rural village scenes as broken up and then re-assembled geometric compositions; decidedly abstract yet still slightly recognizable representations. Through this revolutionary approach, he examined how objects could be depicted from multiple perspectives-multiple sources of light-as if superimposed portrayals of the same setting rendered at different times of day.

Apple has always had this gravitational pull when it comes to design - clean lines, considered materials, and that unmistakable restraint that somehow still feels exciting. It's the reason a whole ecosystem of third-party accessories exists that speaks the same visual language, sometimes so fluently you'd swear they came out of Cupertino.

The original KEF Muo launched back in 2015 and felt like a turning point in portable hi-fi. Serious, designer Bluetooth speakers from a respected hi-fi brand were rare back then-with only a few brands like Bang & Olufsen and Loewe interested in combining pretty and portable. These early designs were still given the side-eye by most traditional audio.

Writing something down by hand, right when it occurs to you, is still the fastest way to keep an idea from slipping away. Digital apps, meanwhile, have the opposite problem: the moment you unlock your phone to jot something down, you're one notification away from forgetting why you opened it.

Anxiety tools have a strange habit of making things worse. Fidget spinners draw stares across a conference table, breathing apps demand screen time mid-conversation, and wearable buzzers pulse on your wrist where anyone paying attention can spot them. The very act of reaching for help becomes another source of self-consciousness, which is the opposite of what someone in the grip of a social anxiety episode needs.

The human eye can only focus on one thing at once. As much as we might insist otherwise, we are meant to see this way - evolutionarily, it hasn't been worth it to change. This helps our balance as bipeds, and lessens workload on the brain, parsing out information in a way we can truly understand. We process visual data similarly, and can extend this function even further to product.

Wireless charging has come a long way, but cord clutter is still an inevitability, especially in high-traffic charging areas like a bedside table or a work-from-home setup. Thankfully, there are tons of options on the market to cut cords and let you truly maximize the wireless capabilities of gear like smartphones, smartwatches, and earbuds. And if you're an Apple user like me, you may be in need of a multi-charger that perfectly powers Apple's mobile trifecta: your iPhone, your Apple Watch, and your AirPods.

EDC used to mean something very specific. Ask any survival enthusiast and they'll tell you it stands for EveryDay Carry, the essential tools you keep on hand at all times. A Swiss Army knife. A multi-tool. A compact flashlight. Things built for the unpredictable, the inconvenient, and the emergency. The whole point was physical survival, and the design language to match: rugged, matte, built to last.

Using Voronoi polygon modelling, the design team mapped how pressure from a sleeping head distributes across the pillow's surface, then engineered protrusions and recesses to respond to that data. The front face features raised cellular structures that increase the contact area between pillow and skin, improving comfort while simultaneously channelling airflow to keep things cool. The back face offers four distinct tactile zones depending on orientation, giving users a degree of customisation that is rare in camping gear. Also, a little warning but: trypophobia alert.

If you follow concept design on social media, there's a good chance you've already stumbled across Jane Morelli's work. She's the designer behind that Lacoste x Bialetti moka pot that went viral not too long ago, and now she's back with something that somehow manages to feel even more covetable. For the Year of the Horse, she has created a concept coffee set that imagines what a Hermès x Bialetti collaboration could look like, and the result is genuinely breathtaking.

Dyson on Wednesday unveiled the PencilWash, a wet-and-dry floor cleaner that adapts the company's pencil-thin vacuum form factor into a device capable of simultaneously washing and vacuuming hard floors. The launch, announced via PR Newswire, marks the second product built on Dyson's ultra-slim Pencil platform and represents the British engineering firm's most direct assault yet on a hard-floor cleaning segment increasingly dominated by Chinese manufacturers.

"I've never felt this much behind as a programmer. The profession is being dramatically refactored as the bits contributed by the programmer are increasingly sparse and between. I have a sense that I could be 10X more powerful if I just properly string together what has become available over the last ~year and a failure to claim the boost feels decidedly like skill issue."

Spring 2026 promises record-breaking travel numbers as airports worldwide brace for unprecedented passenger volumes. The post-pandemic wanderlust shows no signs of slowing, and savvy travelers know that the right gear makes the difference between smooth sailing and terminal meltdown. Smart packing isn't about cramming more into your carry-on; it's about selecting tools that adapt to chaos, keep you powered up, and maintain your sanity when delays inevitably occur.

Such was the case when John MacLaren started making porcelain light fixtures. MacLaren had been making custom furnishings for 20 years when his gaze drifted upwards: While visiting the home of a friend in Sagaponack, his pal noted that he'd n ever seen contemporary flush-mount light fixtures as beautiful as the antique ones in his historic home. MacLaren wondered if he might be able to make some.

Enter The Bugle by Design by Joffey, a coat and umbrella stand that rethinks the entire concept by borrowing its form from an unlikely source: a brass musical instrument. This isn't just clever design for the sake of being clever. It's a genuinely smart solution to a problem that plagues anyone living in tight quarters. Designer: Design by Joffey The beauty of this piece is in its vertical footprint.

Phones go to bed dirty. They've been in your hands, on tables, in pockets, collecting bacteria all day, and they usually charge on a nightstand next to where you sleep without ever being cleaned. UV sanitizers exist, but most are clinical white boxes that feel more like medical equipment than something you'd want on your bedside table, and they rarely do anything beyond sterilization.

I miss the point-and-shoot cameras of days gone by. They offered a level of convenience that smartphones have hogged over the past two decades. Yet many designers and creators believe those cameras had something in their design that can still influence modern devices and their form. Case in point: the D90 Block Power Bank by D MOOSTER. It resembles a digicam without the lens, but with the same comfortable, convenient handling.

In fact, I've made a conscious habit of seeking out successful individuals so I can learn from their experiences. But the man often nicknamed the "King of the Hollywood Blockbuster" continues to elude me. And yet, despite never meeting face to face, Spielberg taught me one of the most important lessons of my entire career. It's a lesson I've learned through engaging with his work.

Electric mini-pumps were among the many trendy products in 2025. From Silca and Trek to Cycplus and Muc-Off, many brands threw their hats into the portable tire inflator ring. Topeak was among them, and its E-Booster Digital was my first experience using one of these new-fangled gadgets. Topeak didn't waste much time, and it recently introduced its second pocket-sized compressor, the new E-Booster Digital Mini.

Chocolate disappears in minutes, leaving nothing but an empty wrapper and fleeting satisfaction. The best gifts aren't consumed and forgotten; they become daily companions that elevate ordinary moments into something special. Design-centric objects strike that perfect balance between aesthetic beauty and genuine utility, transforming mundane tasks into opportunities for delight. These aren't decorative dust collectors destined for a forgotten shelf. They're thoughtfully crafted tools that earn their place in everyday life through both visual appeal and practical performance.

Most consumer drones look and feel intimidating to a child. They're loud, angular, full of exposed propellers, and packed with complex controls adults barely understand. Kids want to see the world from above, but parents see spinning blades and fragile arms that cost too much to replace. The mix of fascination and fear turns what could be fun into something closer to borrowing a grown-up's expensive, breakable toy.

The GSD course "Paper or Plastic: Reinventing Shelf Life in the Supermarket Landscape," taught by twin brothers Teman and Teran Evans, turns students into strategists who evaluate household brands and then redesign them from the ground up. The Brooklyn-bred Evans brothers have been lifelong collaborators. Both attended the Graduate School of Design before launching careers in design, marketing, and branding. They've been teaching "Paper or Plastic" at the Graduate School of Design for 14 years.

There's something oddly comforting about watching the vinyl resurgence happen in real time. We've collectively decided that convenience isn't everything, that sometimes the ritual matters as much as the result. But while turntables have been getting their moment in the spotlight, another piece of audio history has been quietly staging its own comeback: the dedicated digital audio player. Enter the DAP-1, a concept device from Frankfurt-based 3D artist

Sounds radical, doesn't it? The Touch Bar was such a waste of space on the MacBook Pro when it was first introduced exactly a decade ago in 2016. It shipped with a lot of potential but barely any real-world use, and Apple even considered swapping it out for a slot that housed the Apple Pencil back in 2021. While that feature never really came to pass, something else happened in 2021 that blew everyone's minds - OpenAI's Dall-E.