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Doing more with less: This Sisto piece is just six pieces of plywood, butt-jointed and with exposed fasteners. Its simple construction aside, its configurations are manifold:

The humble tape measure is easy to take for granted, but it's a marvel of modern engineering. A 25-foot-long piece of spring steel, far less than 1mm thick, can be coiled into something that clips to a pocket. Unfurled, a curve is induced across its width, giving it a beam-like strength that allows it to hold a rigid, straight shape.Researchers at the University of California San Diego found another application for tape measures beyond measuring: Being used as robot hands. Those companies currently developing humanoid robots will tell you that developing artificial human-like hands is expensive. The UCSD researchers reckon tape measures can accomplish a lot of gripping and conveying tasks at a fraction of the cost. "We l

It must have been tremendous fun (and a lot of work) for Australian production designer Colin Gibson, the man tasked with designing the bikes for 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road. Gibson, known for designing and building fully functional props and vehicles, worked with motocross champ Stephen Gall, stunt coordinator Guy Norris and mechanic Matt Bromley to ensure his fantastic creations could actually tear up terrain. The team produced some 47 motorcycles with eclectic designs. Bolted to the frames was everything from upholstery, mannequin parts, leather scraps, Persian rug off-cuts, chain-link fence segments, horse saddles, bird feathers, boat sails and household knick-knacks. In some cases tires were replaced with steel paddles,

The most extreme version of a sleeping bag is probably the mummy bag, so named for its sarcophagus-like shape. Designed for cold climates, the tapered form minimizes the interior volume, allowing your body's heat to more easily fill every cubic inch. The mummy bag is fine for those who can sleep in a position like the bag's namesake, all night. More casual campers, and those who toss and turn because they haven't spent the entire day scaling an icy peak, can find even ordinary zip-sided sleeping bags restricting. Thus Rumpl, the Oregon-based camping gear company that pioneered the technical blanket, has adapted their signature product into a wrap-style sleeping bag that offers more freedom of sleeping positions.

At first glance, this appears to be some sort of vintage display case. In fact, it's a window-mounted birdhouse. You install it like a window A/C and load it with feed, and then you've got something like an aquarium for birds.

At first glance, this Grabinet Outfitter Kit appears useful. It's a set of nine drawers that apparently allow you to store/organize smaller items in a milk crate. The catch is, these won't fit in a standard milk crate, just the ones by its manufacturer, UbeCube. (Standard milk crates are 11" tall and 13" square. UbeCube's offerings are slightly larger, and truly cubical at 13.5" all around.)

It may seem like the world is going to hell in a handbasket, so don't forget that there's any number of shiny things for you to buy. Sure, you could spend $7.50 on a sketchbook at Michael's, but wouldn't you rather spend $60 to get one that's bound with eleven solid brass discs?

Apple TV+ produces the popular dystopian television show "Severance." To promote Season 2, the company jokingly posted a webpage (since removed) featuring the Lumon Terminal Pro from the show. Unsurprisingly for our consumerist society, people were disappointed that they couldn't actually purchase it.Enter a company called Atomic Keyboard, a company with no history I can find and whose website has no "About" section. The mysterious company claims they're developing an IRL version of the Dasher Keyboard, the companion to the Terminal Pro used by the unlucky Macrodata Refinement

Here's what we looked at this week:Design needed: These Mad-Max-esque solar-powered bikes and trikes from YongLe Risheng.Stunning drone show by Studio Hock: King Kong climbing the Empire State Building.Hyundai's gaming-inspired Insteroid concept. The base model is popular worldwide, but won't be coming to the U.S.

While client work pays the bills, successful industrial design firms know that doing internal projects can keep the creative juices flowing. One such project is this Dovetail concept, by Atlanta-based Formation Design Group: Dovetail is a modernization of the mobile lounge concept, developed by Formation to reduce aircraft turnaround times, enhance the passenger experience, and create a more accessible air travel experience.