design

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Art Installation Up for Just Minutes Wins Design Prize

Border seesaws 'reminder of how human beings can transcend the forces that seek to divide us'

(Newser) - The best design of 2020 was in place for less than 20 minutes, reports CNN , which shows just how impactful it was. "Teeter-Totter Wall," erected on the border fence separating El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, has been named the best design of the year by London'...

You've Never Seen a Chocolate Chip Like This
You've Never Seen a
Chocolate Chip Like This
in case you missed it

You've Never Seen a Chocolate Chip Like This

Tesla designer's mold puts taste and texture first

(Newser) - You might be surprised to learn there's essentially no design to the classic chocolate chip you know and love, whose shape comes from being dropped on the factory line. The goal is mass production rather than optimal taste. But now, a senior industrial designer at Tesla says he's...

Car Designers Still Need Clay to Perfect Their Model

All the major automakers still rely on the decades-old process

(Newser) - Carmakers may be on the cutting edge of digital technology, but they still turn to clay when it comes time to test their latest designs. And that's true for every major company, including Mercedes, Tesla, and Toyota, reports the AP . They use the ancient, flexible, forgiving material to sculpt...

Engineer's Award-Winning Idea: Clothes Grow With Kids

UK student Ryan Yasin comes up with Petit Pli

(Newser) - It's an age-old problem for parents: Shell out money for clothes that their young children quickly outgrow. Now, however, 24-year-old London designer Ryan Yasin has put his degree in aeronautical engineering to use to create origami-like pleated clothing designed to grow along with the kids, reports Quartz . The result...

Weird Part of McDonald's Straw-Redesign Stunt: 'It Works'

Two top engineering firms went at it

(Newser) - A new McDonald's marketing stunt has managed to catch the attention of tech and food blogs because of its weird premise: the redesign of the humble straw. The chain hired two respected engineering firms—people behind Google, NASA, and DARPA projects—to build a straw that allows for the...

This New Map Crushes the One We've Relied On Since 1569

Most proportional map ever?

(Newser) - Portraying all the contents of a spherical Earth on a flat, two-dimensional piece of paper is notoriously difficult, which is why we've relied on, for more than four centuries, a map that inaccurately shows Greenland, Alaska, and Antarctica as imposingly huge. But now a new map by Japanese artist...

Apple-Samsung Showdown Reaches Supreme Court
Last Time SCOTUS Heard
a Case Like This, It Was 1885
THE RUNDOWN

Last Time SCOTUS Heard a Case Like This, It Was 1885

Apple, Samsung battle has lasted years

(Newser) - The last time the Supreme Court heard a design patent case, it involved carpets—and there were only 38 states in the USA. The long-running Apple vs. Samsung battle over the latter company's alleged copying of iPhone design elements made it to the country's top court Tuesday, and...

Behold, the World's 'Best' Building

 Behold, the World's 
 'Best' Building 
in case you missed it

Behold, the World's 'Best' Building

31 six-story blocks make up Singapore's Interlace

(Newser) - If the best view from your apartment is into your neighbors' living room, prepare to be envious of the residents of Singapore's the Interlace —the winner of the World Building of the Year at the eighth annual World Architecture Festival. Designed by Netherlands-based Office for Metropolitan Architecture and...

Drunk Kid Designed a Whole Aircraft, Forgot
 Drunk Kid Designed 
 a Whole Aircraft, Forgot 
in case you missed it

Drunk Kid Designed a Whole Aircraft, Forgot

Meanwhile, his roommate's tweet about his inebriated exploit has gone viral

(Newser) - Most people who've slammed rum and vodka drinks all night end up in slurred conversations about the meaning of life, drunk texting, or just passing out. But a second-year student at Michigan Technological University says he witnessed his trashed roommate do something a little more unusual late Saturday: design...

Apple's Design Guru Gets a Promotion

Jony Ive will oversee design of new campus, retail stores

(Newser) - The man Steve Jobs once called his "spiritual partner" at Apple is moving up the company ladder again. Jony Ive, the longtime senior VP of design, has been promoted to chief design officer, a position that will have Ive overseeing not only Apple's hardware and software units, but...

How a Whole House Can Fit in a 10-Foot Cube

Cubitat is a 'plug and play' home that fits in a room

(Newser) - A team of builders and designers have created what is essentially a house that can fit in a room. Cubitat is a 10-by-10-by-10-foot cube, and it's got practically everything you need built in, Treehugger reports. One side has a whole kitchen, with a sink, dishwasher, fridge, and more, all...

Ai Weiwei's Design Firm Loses License

Artist says needed documents were confiscated

(Newser) - Days after losing his last appeal in a tax case , embattled Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei is facing another legal battle. China has canceled his design firm's business license because he hasn't re-registered the company, the BBC reports. But the artist says he couldn't re-register after officials confiscated...

Railway to Apple: You Stole Our Clock

Swiss Federal Railways spots its iconic design in iOS 6

(Newser) - Apple, about that cool iOS 6 clock design of yours—it's not exactly original. Or so says Swiss Federal Railways, which has used pretty much the same design for its iconic clock since 1944, the Daily Mail reports. The original clock face was made by celebrated designer Hans Hilfiker...

UK Toasts Safer Beer Glass
 UK Toasts Safer Beer Glass 

UK Toasts Safer Beer Glass

Shatter-proof pint glass aims to cut binge-drink violence

(Newser) - The inventors of a new beer glass say they've found a way to cut the number of violent assaults by UK drinkers who've lifted too many pints—and used a broken one as a weapon. Taking their lead from shatterproof windshields, a team of designers added a resin coating to...

The Most Stylish Cities in the World

Paris, Milan top Forbes list

(Newser) - Weighing everything from fashion to architecture to street life, Forbes rates the 10 most stylish cities in the world. The best of the best:
  • It doesn’t get any more chic than Paris
  • Milan: “flashy” fashion and cool contemporary design
  • New York: a shopping spree from Brooklyn to 5th
...

Users Prefer Bing to Google But Won't Switch: Study

Focus group users prefer design, organization of Microsoft search engine

(Newser) - Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine, impresses users—but not enough to make them switch from Google, TechCrunch reports. Asked to rate Bing’s features, users in a study by the Catalyst Group thought Bing beat Google in almost every category, including visual design, organization, and filtering options. The exception...

Message the Thing in Modern-Day Bling
 Message the Thing 
 in Modern-Day Bling 
glossies

Message the Thing in Modern-Day Bling

(Newser) - A new wave of jewelry designers is ditching pretty gemstones for cutting-edge commentary, the Economist reports. Using mainly found objects, plastic, recycled junk—and some precious metals in unexpected forms—jewelers are rejecting social-status-bling for designs that tell stories or question values. Dutch designers lead the pack because they “...

Face It: Font Inspires a Certain Type of Backlash

(Newser) - Comic Sans is a lighthearted font, easy to read and very popular. Too popular, if you believe its legions of detractors. Like many other comics-related entities, it even has a sworn enemy—the 10-year-old Ban Comic Sans movement, which compares misuse of the typeface "to showing up for a...

Ariz. City Gets a Do-Over
 Ariz. City Gets a Do-Over 
GLOSSIES

Ariz. City Gets a Do-Over

Officials annex extra 5 miles for Mesa's new downtown

(Newser) - Mesa, Ariz., is getting a do-over. The financially battered city experienced explosive growth for more than half a century, and municipal leaders hope to recover that vitality, reports the Economist. Their solution? Start building, but not in the strip-mall-and-tract-home model so familiar in the Sunbelt. The city has annexed 5...

Barbies of the Future May Grow on Trees

Researchers use wood and wax to make biodegradable alternative

(Newser) - Wooden toys may not be so 1850s, scientists say. A bioplastic made from trees has been used to make everything from golf tees to car parts in recent years, but its sulfurous stink kept it out of the toy market. Now a sulfur-free version of "liquid wood" is available,...

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