Peter Treadway's motorized footwear

Designed by RISD and Art Center grad Peter Treadway (nom de guerre?), the namesake shoes are meant to be a fun way to encourage people to travel on foot to a public transportation center. There's a YouTube movie that displays how this works in this article. By Core77

Fortune's smartest designers in tech

Fortune's 50 Smartest People in Tech article highlights individuals in the expected categories of CEO, Analyst, Engineer, Scientist, Academic and, we were pleasantly surprised to see, Designer.

Hitachi's dockable LifeStudio

Over the years, the form factor of external hard drives has been whittled down into increasingly smaller, simple bricks; now, for better or worse, comes a more complicated form from Hitachi in their LifeStudio drive.

Is a career in packaging design appealing to ID grads?

New concept for bike covers

The armadillo-like SunRed solar moped concept features a cool way to cover the bike up when it's parked. By Core77

iPads mmakes kiosks so easy

Sooner or later businesses were bound to figure out that the iPad makes the perfect low-cost, low-maintenance kiosk. By Core77

Richard Seymour on imagination

We don't need to talk about what we can do, we need think about what we should do. And that's the role of the designer, because they might be the only person in the room who's got that imagination, that capability to think beyond it.
Richard Seymour

Starting out

Starting Out is a new series by Core77 about designers who have recently struck out on their own. More than a string of studio visits, the series profiles talented, risk-taking professionals all around the world. We hope their anecdotes will inspire your own entrepreneurial spirit. By Lisa Smith

Milan Gallery: The Closest Thing on Earth to Outer Space

With an interior by the architect Simone Micheli, the publishing house and bookstore L'Archivolto spreads--and spaces--out. By Susanne Labarre

Concept for U.K. Bullet Train Revealed

PriestmanGoode creates an exterior that harks to a design classic, and an interior that looks like a living room. By Cliff Kuang

How low can you cellphone limbo?

AKA how simple can you design a mobile phone? Pretty darn simple. Designer Andrew Kim had a qualm with the HTC group, that being the fact that there’s no real perfectly simple way to differentiate between lots of “lower-end” phones and “premium models”, especially in the HTC line. By Yanko Design

Winged faucets of love

This project goes by the name “Wings”, a faucet system that contains and distributes that lovely liquid on bird’s pride-like handles. By Yanko Design

Micoffee

Combining the servings of coffee, tea and hot cocoa in a single appliance, designer Carlos Marquez has presented a personal brewing station that allows users to customize the size of their beverage from 6oz, 8oz, 10oz or 12oz, so there is no waste of water. By Naresh Chauhan

Better ideas faster

Better Ideas Faster: How to Brainstorm More Effectively

View more presentations from David Sherwin.

Shimmering Art Makes a Parking Garage Disappear

Ned Kahn's shimmering wall of aluminum helps hide an eyesore. By Alissa Walker

Three Things Google Can Learn From Apple

Why P&G's slogan "Experience Matters" is relevant for tech companies, how tools can be funny, and why no one ever really needs a screwdriver. By Henrik Werdelin

GE and Yves Behar Unveil Charge-Stations for Electric Cars

The stations will drop the time required to charge a car down to as little as four hours. By Cliff Kuang

Prosthetic Flipper Turns Amputees Into Mermen

Swedish designer Richard Stark's Neptune concept could help amputees swim. By Suzanne Labarre

An Aquarium That's Also a Giant Pile of Pebbles

It's an aquarium! By Suzanne Labarre

A Gym on Steroids, Designed by MVRDV and ADEPT

It's a fitness center but also a theater, a health spa, an exhibition space, a study hall, a place to eat, and a Zen center. By Suzanne Labarre

Can a Ball Help Kids Learn Braille?

Be-B could teach Braille to children, blind or not, through touch and sound. By Suzanne Labarre

IDEA Spotlight: Speech Therapy Made Easy

The Palatometer projects tongue movements onto a computer screen, providing a clear visual of how you thpeak -- sorry, speak. By Suzanne Labaree

How Honeywell Is Redesigning the Skies

Bob Smith, Honeywell's CTO, talks with FastCompany.com about the technology that will soon control the skies overhead. By Cliff Kuang

Almost Genius: An AR Interface for Drawing in 3-D

Somehow, this weird little device actually makes a decent amount of sense. By Cliff Kuang

Prosthesis, a step closer towards new cyborg society

Prosthetic limb is a novel innovation in itself, but if comes equipped with advanced technologies, it becomes more than handy for the user. By Naresh Chauhan

IceCloud fridge extracts humidity from thin air for natural cooling

Developed for the Electrolux Design Lab 2010, the “IceCloud” by Hungarian designer Fanni Csernátony is an intelligent, comfortable and eco-friendly cooler appliance that uses the natural cooling effect of water (passive cooling) and clay pots. By Naresh Chauhan

Pop-Up Restaurants Popping Up All Over

Most hot restaurants follow the same trajectory: Big investment, smash opening with celebrities and hoi-polloi, then the Yogi Berra phase, where "nobody goes there any more, it's too crowded", then decline and close. By Lloyd Alter

Get it right, people, it's "Coroflot" for chrissakes

Microsoft may bring the Courier project back online. By Core77

Designer Mark Sanders uploads his original Strida bike student thesis

You've seen it in the window of Design Within Reach, or cutting through traffic down Broadway; but now you can take a very different look at the iconic, folding Strida bike. By Core77

Book Review: Box, Bottle, Bag, by Andrew Gibbs

Taking the best designs from his website the The Dieline, Gibbs has produced a lovingly photographed book of packaging accompanied with copy about the agency that designed it, often including quotes about the project. By Robert Blinn

From the Master of Speed Comes a Lean, Green City Car

It’s a long way from the McLaren F1 and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren to a tiny city car, but Gordon Murray, the legendary engineer whose Formula One racecars have won 50 grand prix, likes a challenge. By Jim Motavalli