A reimagining of a classic. Designer Andrew Clifford Capener has created the A-1 Scrabble designer edition which features your choice of fonts and a scrabble board and interior box are made out of solid walnut, and the exterior box is made from birch. Each of the 6 board pieces is magnetized to fit together perfectly and each piece slides nicely into its respective slot in the box and is secured by interior magnets as well. The interior of the exterior box as well as the bottoms of the 6 board pieces are lined with cork, to protect them while in use.

It does not, however, help you figure out what to do with a “Q” four “E”s, a “B” and an “L”. I also want one of my very own.

(Via...

I met my very first industrial designer when I was about 16. Well, to be fair, he was really just a an 18 year old kid getting ready to go off to Pratt Institute in New York to study Industrial Design. Either way, as a career choice, it was something completely new to me. This kid was an artist. He liked to draw. Every scrap of paper in his sphere became a occasion to create something. He’d draw anything- people, places, things, animals- but the thing that really got him, the thing that was sending him off to New York that fall was drawing cars. He wanted to design cars.

Not being much of a car person, I couldn’t really understand the connection between art and cars. But, fast forward a few years, and I get it. I get the allure of a classic car, not just aesthetically,...

One of the great things about the end of a year (beside the excitement of the fresh start awaiting you when that clock strikes midnight on the 31^st), is the year-end list.  There’s best movies of 2010, best albums, best books, best games, best, well, you get the idea.  There are so many there could be a “best of the best-of lists” list;  so many, in fact, that it can take until March to check them all out.

One of the best-of lists I’ve been spending some time checking out is Popular Science’s Best of What’s New list.  The list compiles 100 of the best innovations of the year.   Some of my personal favorites: the guitar...

The teaser on the cover of the National Geographic was “Little Ideas That Can Change The World.”  And yeah, it sometimes is that simple, isn’t it?  A tiny notion that leads to something huge.  There’s a Peter Gabriel song I like a lot called Mercy Street.  There’s a line in it that always gets me; “All of the buildings, all of the cars/Were once just a dream/In somebody’s head.”  I think of those lyrics often.  When I’m wowed by some technological marvel, or some simple device that’s made my life easier in some way.  It was all just an idea someone had once.

The products spotlighted in the article are changing the world, make no mistake about it.  A purifying...

I’m currently living in approximately 700 square feet of living space.  It’s small, but not unbearable.  There’s something very comforting about knowing exactly how much stuff I can cram in here at any given time.  Old magazines?  I’m sorry you’ll have to go.  Excessive knickknacks?  No, not so much.  It’s not that I don’t have too much stuff I probably don’t need, it’s that the space...

When I moved to Portland, I lived downtown.  I spent my first few weeks here exploring my new neighborhood.  Walking the streets, taking unknown lefts and rights, wondering if it would ever feel like home.  I would peek in the windows of restaurants I couldn’t afford, and smoke heavy bars dotted with afternoon drinkers.  I’d look at pretty dresses and nice coats through the shiny glass, and make grand plans to buy them someday. Everything felt new and fresh.  Alive with uncertainty....

I used to have what I consider the best type of commute to work; I could walk.  It was beautiful.  I could get a little fresh air, some exercise, see the neighborhood from the sidewalk rather than flying by outside my windshield.  I loved it.  No worries about parking or traffic, just a nice stroll watching the city spring to life each morning.

Now, I’m a car commuter.  I spend my morning changing lanes and avoiding 18-wheelers.  It is, luckily, a very brief commute, but still, it sets the tone for the day in...

I don’t personally commute via bicycle, but it’s very popular around these parts.  But, for those far more fit than me, there’s this new and interesting development the bendable bike.

The bendable bike, created by industrial design student, Kevin Scott, was designed to prevent thefts by enabling riders to easily secure their bikes to any available post.   With the press of a lever, the...

The news making that buzzing sound around the water cooler is the proposed plastic bag ban in Portland. It made me wonder; what’s to become of the bags we have now? Art, of course.

Which, of course, makes me...

Welcome to Portland, IDSA members! We love the DIY theme. A big thanks to everyone who helped to make a great conference!  Be sure and visit our neighborhood, Old Town/Chinatown, while you are here, and check out our favorite spots:

Compound (One word: Godzilla)

Ground Kontrol (Played Pacman lately?)

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