Industrial Designer Perfectly Translates the Design Cues of Classic Cars Into Toys by Rain Noe

Julian Meagher was obsessed with classic cars from a young age. After gaining his degree in industrial design and spending six years at an ID consultancy in London, he started his own company, Playforever, which pays homage to his childhood obsession. What's notable is that Meagher and co. have perfectly nailed the design cues of the cars they represent.

From classic Porsche 911 Targas, Plymouth Fury cop cars, Ford Thunderbirds and Dodge Chargers to race car forms from 1920s Indy cars to present-day Formula One, Playforever's toys are the result of "decades of researching and studying technical car design and automotive styling," the company writes. "Our collection of Midis, Minis and Mavericks is an eclectic mix of art, fashion, traditional design and modernism."

Meagher's love of classic industrial design in general is also easy to spot, by the objects in the background of the product shots.

I absolutely love the way Meagher and his team have distilled telltale classic automotive lines into simple 3D forms that instantly read as the source material. To me Playforever's creations are the perfect balance of style, restraint and homage. Check out their collection here.

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Resource: Ex-Nike Footwear Designer Breaks Down Sneaker Terminology in Live Sketching Video by Rain Noe

Some of you reading this have completed your Foundation Year, and were supposed to be in your first semester of Industrial Design right now. Instead the pandemic has you stuck at home. If this is you, and you were looking forward to studying Footwear Design, we've got the video for you.

Here industrial designer Michael DiTullo, who's worked for Nike, Jordan and Converse, breaks down the terminology and components of footwear design in an hour-long live sketching session:

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Opinion: This Robotic Drawing Tutor is the Wrong Way to Teach Kids to Draw by Rain Noe

In the past, technologies were invented to solve specific problems. But nowadays, we see product development teams trying to contrive uses for whatever existing technology they have access to. And that leads to product designs like this DrawBo.

The technology in question is the vertical plotter suspended from two wires, like the Scribit. Hang it from two nails, stick a marker in it, and it reels/unreels either cable to travel around the drawing space, laying down lines.

The DrawBo is basically the Scribit with some extra software. The developers claim it can teach your child to draw, in the following manner:

So basically it lays down a line, then pauses. Your child is meant to ape the line on a separate piece of paper. Then it draws another line, pauses. Your child copies it. Et cetera.

Perhaps I'm too influenced by the industrial design applications of drawing, where you are trying to represent form or express an idea, but I don't think the DrawBo is teaching drawing at all. If anything this seems like a version of the game "Simon," except it wastes paper. And if drawing can be taught by simply having a child copy one line at a time, why is this even a physical object, and not an animation on a screen?

So I'm putting this one in the category of "Technologists contriving a problem to solve."

The DrawBo is currently up on Kickstarter. At press time it had $7,172 on pledges on a $30,000 goal, with 23 days left to pledge.

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Yea or Nay? This Children's Drawing Aid Perfectly Replicates First-Year Industrial Design Drawing Techniques by Rain Noe

The earliest Industrial Design Drawing 101 assignment I can remember is drawing cubes in perspective. We drew hundreds, then thousands. Once the professor felt perspective had been mastered, we then modified the cubes with voids and projections.

The assignments were more tedious than challenging, and I always thought a grade-school art class could learn the same thing. So I was a bit surprised to learn that a company called Splat makes an eponymous object that's essentially a template for drawing isometric cubes with ellipses in the faces.

The company bills Splat as "a powerfully simple approach to teaching design for STEM," saying that their "aim is to collaborate with industry and schools to help students develop authentic design skills, for success in the classroom and beyond." Here's how children are meant to use a Splat:

And the results it's meant to yield:

I'm divided here. Drawing in isometric ought be even easier than drawing in perspective, and I think you'd want the student to develop this ability freehand; drawing freehand means you typically get it wrong in the beginning, then improve your understanding and accuracy, gradually machining the ability into your neurons. If you nail it the first time because you're tracing a template, does that not hobble your ability to grow, and skip that all-important failure step?

I have no experience with education, and would like to hear opinions from those of you that do. Yea or Nay on the Splat?

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How to Make a Screw-Together 3D-Printed Mold for Silicone Parts by Rain Noe

Here's a nifty way to hold a mold together: In this video industrial designer Eric Strebel shows you how he 3D-printed a mold with threading on both parts, so the whole thing screws together (and unscrews at the end, with a little persuasion):

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Student Work: Tim Krahmer's Open-Source DIY Vacuum Cleaner by Rain Noe

When encountering a discarded vacuum cleaner sitting by the curb, a tinkerer buddy of mine used to harvest their power cords, claiming they were extra robust. Trashed vacuum cleaners were not an uncommon site in NYC. I've also spotted them out here in the country, sitting at the end of driveways, waiting for the garbage truck.

People throw vacuum cleaners away because they assume they're busted. But a study from the UK's Nottingham Trent University, led by Professor Tim Cooper of the School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, believes they're making a mistake. "People are throwing them away prematurely rather than maintaining them properly and carrying out relatively simple repairs," said Professor Cooper. "This is a real issue, as the manufacture of vacuum cleaners accounts for the second largest production of greenhouse gases among electrical products."

Tim Krahmer came across this research when he was a student at the Lund University School of Industrial Design in Sweden. Upon learning that many discarded vacuums are easily repairable, he tackled the topic for his Masters project, called Tenok.

"Vacuum cleaners are often thrown away with the motor still working, but re-using those motors is complicated because their dimensions are not standardized, they vary in power, etc. and for that reason they often just go to waste.

"But any waste can become a resource, if we can find a good use for it, so I developed tenok – an open-source DIY vacuum cleaner that can be equipped with most motors, hoses and power cords from disposed models.

"Tenok can be made with the help of rather simple tools and a desktop 3D-printer and the easy-to-build design has even more benefits: While most vacuum cleaners soon trigger our consumer-instinct to dispose and rebuy when their shiny surfaces start to look old, scratchy and icky, this hardly happens to wooden boxes. Imagine a device you can use your whole life because you do not need to rely on manufacturer-specific spare parts, filters, dustbags…

The key to the Tenok system is Krahmer's 3D-printed "Celtic cross," which can be custom-fit to a variety of vacuum motors, even "odd twentysomething years old Bosch motors," Krahmer writes.

The project is from 2019, and Krahmer now has his MFA in Industrial Design. His current website is here.

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