Fantastic Industrial Design Student Work: Karen Kong's Adjustable Sesura Chair by Rain Noe

For her graduate project at the University of New South Wales, Industrial Design student Karen Kong designed an impressive work chair with an unusual target market: Professional orchestra members.

"Due to the high physiological demands that orchestral musicians face, 50% out of 245 musicians in Sydney's leading orchestras experience musculoskeletal injuries," writes Kong, who is herself a violinist. "In order to reduce the chances of injuries occurring, a crucial area to look into are the chairs that orchestral musicians sit on as it can have a high impact on their physiological health."

"All musicians come in different shapes and sizes. They all have different areas of their body that need to be supported and based on which instrument they play, they need to be supported by the chair differently."

Kong designed her elegant Sesura Chair to be adjustable in multiple ways:

Seat Height

"On the right side of the chair, the front handle will change the height of the front two legs, the back handle will do the same to the back two legs."

"The right side handles are connected to a main thread which is internally housed in the seat frame. The main thread has two nylon dies which connect to a spring-type part, the spring part connects directly to the internal leg."

"As you turn the handle, the rotating thread causes the nylon die to move left and right, pushing out the internal leg which then raises and lowers the chair legs."

Backrest Depth

"Some musicians are taller, some musicians prefer to sit further back in their seats. You can easily adjust the depth of the backrest up to 8cm to suit everyone's seating preference."

"The backrest is attached to two aluminium bent rods which are inserted into a rack. This rack is the one moving part of the three components working with the pinion and worm drive gears that allow the rotational movement of the turning handle to translate directly to linear motion of the back rest. Each full rotation you make with the handle will change the backrest depth by one cm."

Backrest Height

"The backrest height can easily be adjusted with one hand. Simply push the centre lower panel to release and lock it to your selected height.

"Musicians can increase the backrest height up to 8cm."

"SESURA is designed with as few components as possible. The backrest height mechanism operates similarly to the adjustment of a car seat headrest. Simply push the lower bar to unlock, lift up or down to selected height and release the push bar to lock in place."

On top of that, Kong designed the Sesura Chair to stack, and it's slimmer than the incumbent market-leading design.

It's also far less clunky looking, as you can see by comparing the two chairs' adjustment handles. Kong's design also allows you to adjust the Sesura one-handed, so you can keep ahold of your instrument with the other; the incumbent design requires two hands to adjust.

Kong won a Good Design Award for her efforts, and is now a freshly-minted industrial designer. Bravo!

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Microsoft's Dual-Screen Surface Duo 2 by Rain Noe

With their original Surface Duo smartphone, Microsoft's industrial design team asked a great question: Do folding screens have to be contiguous? Their answer was no, and the device seemed promising, but was plagued by buggy software. Now they're looking to correct those flaws with their Surface Duo 2 smartphone, which they're releasing later this month.

As with the original, the hinge design allows the phone to be "closed" in either direction.

A slim screen along the spine illuminates when the phone rings, delivers notifications, and indicates battery level while charging.

I'm super-curious about the UI/UX: How do you set each screen, how easy is it to expand what's on one screen to both? Can you stream two separate feeds at the same time, and switch audio between them? Can this thing fold with a protective case on it? We'll have to wait for some in-depth reviews, which we expect will shortly follow the device's October 21st launch.

The Surface Duo 2 starts at $1,500 for the 128GB model, going up to a whopping $1,800 for the 512GB.

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Industrial Design Student Work: The Aqua Stack Children's Toy by Rain Noe

Sand was recently added as a finalist for entry into the National Toy Hall of Fame. As with many children, the material was a go-to toy for Thomas Mackisack, who combined it with another element for his childhood play. "I would spend hours trying to create intricate tunnels, absolutely fascinated by the way water could flow down the paths I laid," Mackisack writes, "only to eventually flood the pit and subsequently, my mother's neighbouring garden."

Now an Industrial Design student at New Zealand's Massey University School of Design, Mackisack revisited the idea of incorporating water into play with his Aqua Stack project. "Some of the frustrations with playing in the sandpit were mainly around water, getting it to the sandpit and controlling it," he writes. "Finding a way to contain and construct water became a starting point for the design. Additionally, finding a way to reuse the same water."

"Material choice was dictated by water. Due to the type of chemicals and processes required to make wood waterproof, I looked to plastics, exploring the potential of recycled material. I propose this toy would be injection moulded using Ocean Waste Plastic; creating a story of how a toy made from waste floating in the ocean, can have another life in better waters."

"The resulting toy is Aqua Stack. With endless potential for all little builders, the various block sizes can start upside down and stacked without water, forming an understanding of building. When ready, they can flip them over and stack them high, creating beautiful little water falls. Aqua Stack teaches simple physics principles around water pressure and gravity. Through slides, unstructured play can be expanded, and the mounting system enables accessorises like dam walls, sieves and water wheels. Additionally, the dishwasher friendly design makes it easy for parents to clean."

"Aqua stack can be used indoors, in the bath, and outside, in the sandpit of course."

Check out more of Mackisack's work here.

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Industrial Design Student Work: DIY Thermoses, From Household Vessels with 3D-Printed Connections by Rain Noe

Here's a clever project from May Meyerson, done when she was an Industrial Design student at Israel's Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.

"From a basket of jars that I collected in my house I assembled different kinds of thermoses, their design took reference from gestures that we are doing while drinking a hot beverage. The joints that connect the jars are 3d printed and therefore enables to create a variety of joints and thermoses."

Meyerson doesn't have a website, but you can check out her Instagram here.

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