Core77

Inter-twined's 21-Day Life-Centered Design Thinking Challenge Launches Today

Stuart Constantine

There's a phrase that keeps surfacing in design circles lately: "life-centered design." It's not a rejection of human-centered thinking so much as a reframing of it, one that asks designers to zoom out and consider themselves as participants in living systems rather than engineers working on top of them.

Inter-twined is a new California-based design collaborative and they are taking that idea seriously. Today, on Earth Day, they're inviting the broader design community to explore it with them.

Starting April 22 and running through May 12, Inter-twined is hosting a free, public 21-Day Life-Centered Design Thinking Challenge: a daily journaling and sketching practice designed to help designers, students, and creative thinkers begin building a relationship between their work and the natural world. No registration required. No cost. Just a prompt each morning, a sketchbook, and some honest reflection.

The Studio Behind It

Inter-twined was founded by Agota Jonas and Treasure Hinds, two product designers and educators with decades of experience and a shared history that traces back to their time as colleagues at frog design in the Bay Area, more than 20 years ago. They reconnected recently, and as Hinds began learning about Jonas's biomimicry studies, the conversations started feeling urgent enough to turn into something.

Their focus is on translating biomimicry's Life's Principles, a set of design strategies distilled from natural processes, into practical methods that working designers can actually use. Workshops are in development. Tools are being built. The challenge is their first major public offering, and it's free by design.

"We want products that are beautiful, functional, and deeply human-centered," says Hinds. "But we also need to be participants in living systems rather than extractors from them. This is the design challenge of our lifetime. Nature has been solving these challenges for 3.8 billion years, and it's time we learn from her expertise."

How It Works

Each morning of the challenge, Inter-twined will share a short prompt inspired by life-centered design principles. Participants are encouraged to brainstorm, reflect, and sketch in response. The prompts are intentionally light-touch, meant to build a daily habit of noticing and questioning rather than demanding hours of output.

The 21 days of prompts are followed by a Reflection Day on May 13, where participants are simply asked to consider what they've taken in, what practices they want to carry forward, and, optionally, to share their reflections publicly using the hashtag #LCDChallenge.

Sharing is entirely optional throughout. Each prompt ends with an invitation to post observations and design questions with #LCDChallenge, but the practice is meant to work as a personal exercise first.

Where to Follow Along

You can participate by following Inter-twined on LinkedIn, visiting their website at inter-twined.com, or signing up to receive the daily prompts via email through a form on their site. Instagram is also in the mix for anyone who wants to share visual work.

If the premise resonates with you, today is a great day to start sketching!

Follow Inter-twined on LinkedIn or visit inter-twined.com to participate. #EarthDay #LifeCenteredDesign #DesignThinking #Biomimicry

Perfectly Nailing a Form with Minimal Cuts

Rain Noe

Here we see a couple blocks of Maple.

But turn them just a bit, and they're something else. Admittedly this hits me more than you; where I live, I see cows every morning. So I was struck by how Swiss industrial designer Carlo Clopath so perfectly nailed the form of a cow, by making just a few cuts in a piece of Maple.

Admittedly, Clopath picked the right animal to render. Seeing them up close, I'm always struck by how rectilinear cows are, as if they were designed for shipping.

Clopath created these years ago, as objets d'esign for a now-defunct brand calld Dadadum.

Christopher Herwig Documents Visually Riotous Utility Vehicles in South Asia

Rain Noe

Canadian photographer and filmmaker Christopher Herwig has traveled the world, documenting what he encounters. One of his projects is "Trucks and Tuks," a visual record of the largest and smallest vehicles used on the Indian subcontinent.

Elaborate, lavish paint jobs speak to how valued these vehicles are by their owners.

But looking closer, we can see that many of these drivers also have a flair for graphic design."These utilitarian vehicles," Herwig writes, "provide a fertile canvas for the vernacular artists whose colour-saturated creativity covers every spare surface."

There are also sometimes surprising social messages in the paint jobs, too, but I don't want to pull all of Herwig's images. Go check them out on his website or his Trucks and Tuks Instagram.

Cultural Divide: This Chinese Company Makes Power Tools that Look Like Firearms

Rain Noe

Here's an example of how cultural norms can influence product design.

In most parts of America, if you want a gun, you can go out and buy one (assuming no criminal record). People who covet guns can get them.

In China, private gun ownership is virtually non-existent. Which perhaps explains why Mechtron, a Chinese manufacturer of power tools, designs theirs to look like firearms. This is their G-Pro, a cordless drill:

You load the battery like a magazine:

The charging base has little drawers where the bits are arranged like bullets:

Even the marketing depicts the tool as if it's generating a muzzle flash, and speaks of "explosive power:"

If anything, I'm shocked they don't offer a shoulder holster for it.

I guess this design scratches some itch in the target market, inspired by either action movies or anime.

The company is also currently Kickstarting a "pressure washer*" with an assault rifle form factor.

*(Actual pressure washers are dangerous, and this isn't that—it's a glorified water pistol. In the demo video, the model uses it to spray his kids and wash a dog.)

Anyways, just imagine how different American jobsites would look if everyone was toting Mechtron tools.

An Obsessive Focus on UX: Pilot's Pressure-Regulating Kire-Na Highlighter

Rain Noe

Japanese overdesign is alternately hilarious and inspiring. ID students should be forced to study it. Because Japanese overdesign is about seeking out even the slightest inconvenience experienced while using an everyday object, then designing a solution for it.

Pilot's Kire-Na highlighter is a great example. Apparently the UX issue with existing highlighters, Pilot's designers found, is that users cannot consistently modulate pressure. This leads to blotchy, inconsistent highlighting or bleed-through, both of which have been deemed intolerable. They thus added two protrusions on either side of the chisel nib which act as pressure guides:

Here's the development story, according to Japanese stationary retailer Bungu:

Lines never go straight. The ink smudges. It bleeds through the page. The tip gets dirty. Everyone just accepted that's how highlighters work. Pilot didn't.

Six years of development. The project got shut down and restarted from scratch. They came back with a new soft nylon tip with plastic guides that control angle and pressure for you. Straight lines no matter how you hold it. A new ink that dries in one second. No smudging, no bleeding, no dirty tip.

They called it KIRE-NA, meaning "clean" in Japanese. Over ten million shipped in year one.

Six years? And ten million units? The Japanese market is fascinating.

An Industrial Design Success Story: Kenma's Low-Tech Wearable Reverses a Film Company's Fortunes

Rain Noe

Cosmotec is a Tokyo-based company that used to make coated films for monitors and televisions. The company's business took a hit after the '08 crash, and they sought to diversify into the B2C space. They reached out to Japanese design firm and product development company Kenma, asking for product ideas for their film-producing acumen.

At a hospital, one of Kenma's designers observed a nurse so busy that she was taking notes directly on her hand. From this observation, Kenma's design team developed a simple idea: An extra-wide slap bracelet, coated with one of Cosmotec's films, that could be used as a sort of on-body whiteboard.

The WeMo (a portmanteau of "wearable memo") was born. Cosmotec's film allows the WeMo to be written on with any oil-based ballpoint pen (as opposed to water- or gel-based), and the notes are waterproof; this was crucial, as nurses often wash their hands and the goal was to preserve their jottings. But the film does allow the writings to be erased using a standard eraser, or even one's fingers with concerted pressure.

Though initially aimed at nurses and healthcare workers, the product soon spread to others who needed to take quick reference notes without having to reach for a pad. Because the notes are waterproof, the WeMo proved attractive to those working in wet, dirty or outdoor conditions: Construction workers, maintenance staff, automotive technicians, farmers, fishery workers, first responders. It then gained popularity among those with ADHD, providing a handy low-tech wearable for reminders.

The WeMo brand also makes a dedicated pen that clips right to the bracelet.

To address their growing market Cosmotec started making the WeMo Pro, a thicker, longer version that fits over bulky workwear.

Cosmotec sold 100,000 units during their launch year of 2017. Six years later, they'd hit a million units sold.

Joseph Joseph Completely Rethinks the Mop

Rain Noe

Using a traditional mop and bucket means you're continually dunking the mop head back into dirty water. Joseph Joseph's designers have completely rethought this arrangement with their new UltraClean design, which avoids the incumbent's flaw.

This clever system consists of a special two-chamber bucket, and an arrangement that sprays and scrapes the mop head clean each time you insert it.

One bin holds the clean water, while the other collects the dirty.

Here's how it works:

At press time this product wasn't yet on the company's U.S. website.

Nendo's Wonderful Toru, an Electric Kettle for Alessi

Rain Noe

Doing a lot with a little: Nendo's Toru, an electric kettle for Alessi, perfectly reconciles gesture with form.

Taking advantage of Alessi's distinguishing metalworking techniques, which is the origin of the company, the stainless-steel body is shaped simply like a pitcher. The handle coming out from the top seems to go through the side of the body, forming a continuous line to the spout.

A handle of a kettle is usually gripped from the side, but thanks to the top-suspended shape, the kettle can be easily lifted from the power base, and hot water can be poured smoothly by holding the upper part of the handle as a fulcrum and lightly tilting the kettle.

With its soft form, the base has an integrated appearance with the kettle when power is being supplied, while it takes on a straight and simple silhouette when the kettle is detached, designed to blend in well with its surroundings in either case.

From the distinctive handle and spout that seem to pierce through the body, the collection is named "toru" (meaning "through" in Japanese).

Alas, Alessi's only selling a version with a European plug or a British plug. (Thanks, tariffs.)

Pentel's 8-Color Mechanical Pencil, for Designers and Religious Readers

Rain Noe

While France produced the Bic 4 Color Pen, Japan's Pentel makes this Multi 8 mechanical pencil, which holds eight different leads.

Though it holds eight colors, the company sells 12 all told, if you want to swap out.

The design is quite clever. The clip is the indicator that you rotate onto the desired color in order to engage it.

Though the utensil was, by design, aimed at artists, designers and architects...

...the Multi 8 found an unexpected market: Religious readers. Thanks to (non-affiliated-with-Pentel) influencer videos, the Multi 8 has become popular for those studying and annotating scripture. Indeed, religious retailers specifically market the Multi 8 as a "Scripture Marker."

Pentel also makes a version with special leads "For Checking Use." That loses a little something in translation: This version is for editors and designers who need to mark up documents, where the marks won't be picked up by a copy machine or blueprint machine.

An Industrial Design Classic: The Bic 4 Color Pen from 1970

Rain Noe

In 1970, French writing utensil company Bic released the 4 Color Pen. Aimed at French schoolchildren, the chunky pen featured four spring-loaded cartridges providing black, blue, red and green inks.

The pen was a hit, and was exported to the U.S. the next year. It also saw strong sales here, with uptake by students, teachers, clerks, nurses and, I have to believe, designers who prized the ability to lay down multiple colors without needing to switch utensils. The product became so ubiquitous in America that I think most people didn't even realize it was a French invention.

Fun fact: The ball at the top was for dialing rotary phones.

As clever as the design was, it still bore the flaws of '70s thinking: The pen was sealed shut and therefore disposable. People tended to burn through the blue ink first, and then the pen was tossed, even though the other three colors still had plenty in the chamber. Bic later rectified this by providing a threaded barrel and selling refill cartridges.

Fifty-six years later, the pen remains a bestseller; Bic moves millions of these every year. Aside from the now-refillable cartridges, the only significant design change Bic made is that the ball has been replaced by a lanyard loop. (A touch-capacitive ball might've been more in line with the original spirit of the design, but I'm sure it'd be cost prohibitive.)

The pen was designed internally, and sadly, the industrial designer(s) behind it never received any credit.

Core77 Weekly Roundup (4-13-26 to 4-17-26)

Rain Noe

Here's what we looked at this week:

Hyundai unveils Venus and Earth, two Chinese-market-specific concept vehicles.

Dyson finds another application for its tech: Powerful handheld fans.

A handsome two-compartment bathroom waste bin, by industrial designer Daniel Barnes.

A low-tech sliding shutter system from pre-industrial Japan.

"The Lunch of Small Mechanicals," lunch delivered via steampunk-like contraptions.

The insane entrance door to (A)void Café in Prague.

Experimental furniture design: Fastener- and adhesive-free upholstery by Raw-Edges Design Studio.

The PT-200 is a remote-controlled, daisy-chainable pan & tilt 360-degree LED light.

A strange alternative to beach umbrellas: The ShadeSock, a giant windsock.

An '80s objet d'esign: Oliver Michl's expanding Architect's Lamp.

Iyo Hasegawa's wrench-based furniture.

Ralf Jacobs' incredible Harmonograph: Furniture that can draw patterns.

Mario Tsai Studio's modular Star System of lighting.

Industrial design research: Form studies for writing/drawing utensils, by BKID.

Industrial Design Research: Form Studies for Writing/Drawing Utensils, by BKID

Rain Noe

"Write, Draw, Think" is a research project by South Korean ID firm BKID. It was undertaken for the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul, which is dedicated to the country's writing system, Hangeul.

This project proposes sixteen new writing tools developed through research into the habits and gestures of using a pencil. Beginning from the most fundamental act of "writing," the work expands various modes of writing and thinking into new forms of tools. BKID views the pencil not simply as a writing instrument, but as a medium that connects thought and the body, embedding a different writing experience into each tool.

Some tools are designed to help a person immerse themselves and focus on solitary writing, while others allow multiple people to draw a single shared line together. Sharp writing reveals the tension within letter structures, whereas round writing evokes the soft breathing found in Korean vowels. Through the diverse gestures of writing, the project explores the origins of form in writing tools.

Here, the pencil becomes more than a means of recording. It becomes an experimental tool that holds layers of writing, drawing, and thinking. Through the sixteen tools, visitors encounter the moment where letters and bodily gestures meet, and experience new sculptural possibilities for the act of writing.

You can see more of BKID's work here.

Mario Tsai Studio's Modular Star System of Lighting

Rain Noe

This Star System of decorative lighting is by China-based ID firm Mario Tsai Studio.

It consists of modular units of fabric stretched over a frame containing LEDs.

Power is transmitted daisy-chain style, through specially designed connectors.

It's not clear if these were designed for an exhibition, as a one-off for a client or as a product line. While the Star System is currently on display at the firm's showroom in Hangzhou (see below), they're not yet listed as a project on the firm's website.

Ralf Jacobs' Incredible Harmonograph: Furniture That Can Draw Patterns

Rain Noe

Ralf Jacobs is a Netherlands-based artist who works "at the intersection of art, design, science, and signal." He invented this incredible Harmonograph, a piece of furniture that can draw patterns:

He's designed the "hinge" mechanism to be frictionless, which gives the drawing utensil a lot of momentum:

"Underlying my practice is the belief that art is a form of signal processing," Jacobs writes. "Each work is a relic of interaction: a transmission captured, a behavior observed, a pattern retrieved from noise."

Iyo Hasegawa's Wrench-Based Furniture

Rain Noe

These Wrench furniture pieces were made by Japanese artist Iyo Hasegawa.

They're made from threaded rods holding stacked offset wrenches, a tool whose form has captivated Hasegawa.

Washers are used as spacers, and the pieces are fastened together with nuts.

The main material used in the work, the offset wrenches, is not glued or welded and is not fixed in place, allowing the wrench to "twist" freely. This flexibility enables the wrenches to be transformed into any shape. Additionally, they can be folded into a flat form for convenient storage and transportation.

Finally, all the materials can be removed and returned to their original state for their intended use.

These are sold through Copenhagen-based gallery Adorno.