Mercedes Blackbird Tron by Péter Várdai

Mercedes Blackbird Tron, a brand new model is an honor to the Mercedes brand that represents tradition, innovation as well future oriented versions. The aim of this project, however was to design an effigy for the Mercedes factory located in Hungary, which personifies the idea of Mercedes Design. The new car, emphasizing the sporty Mercedes has the right application of colors, materials as well as surface finishing. Initially this project focused on illustrating the energetic elements in a statue, which turned out to be an automobile project named Blackbird. Taking its inspiration from airplane kinship, the Lockheed Blackbird Sr71 is regarded as the fastest manned aircraft. With great speed and future of the brand being the primary motive of this project, the sporty shaped Lockheed Blackbird Sr71 turns out to be a great success in the racing field. The lights emphasize the gaudy shape of Mercedes.

Designer : Péter Várdai

Construction Just Got Cozier

Crane operators spend countless hours in position with limited break time. The FEZA tower crane cabinet seeks to minimize discomfort and increase efficiency with its ergonomic interior. There are panoramic views, user-friendly controls, and advanced security features for work action, while comfort settings like AC and electronic seat adjustment are available at the push of a button. Other creature comforts include food refrigeration, custom shelving, electronic curtains, and extendable leg room for kicking back on those extra long shifts.

Designer: Fatih Evyapan

Wireless Multitouch Wacom

I use a Wacom everyday and love the experience except why not just make it a screen with multitouch? I was delighted when a twitter follower tipped me off on this concept by Derick Schweppe. Let me preface by saying this is an unofficial concept. The Android OS Wacom tablet can be used as an input for fully featured software like Photoshop and incorporates a dual digitizer with both active pen and touch input. When sketching with the pen, palm rejection is activated. The tablet utilizes a high quality IPS display. Do want!

Designer: Derick Schweppe, Hat tip to idsketching and @marchedesign

Core77 Live at the International Home and Housewares Show 2011!

Core77 is proud to announce that we'll be LIVE! from the upcomingInternational Home and Housewares Show in Chicago taking place at McCormick Place March 6-8. We'll be live on the floor bringing you the latest in homeware design, product presentations, exhibition design and industry trends through carefully curated video content. With over 2000 exhibitors showing at the show, this year promises to reveal some great product innovations and exciting design news. This year's show coverage will include perennial favorites like the Student Design Competition, Design Defined Honorees, Global Innovation Awards and products from the new Discover Design Arena. Watch out for presentations from celebrity chefs at the IHHS Cooking Theater, color forecasts from Pantone and the best new products from our favorite homeware designers.

The International Home and Housewares Show (IHHS) is a three-day event held annually by the International Housewares Association (IHA) to feature the newest product innovations and trends for all areas of the home. Exhibitors, industry leaders, buyers, and professionals from all over the globe attend this world-class trade show to see what's new and discuss the future of the industry.

Check out our coverage from last year's show:

>> Joseph Joseph

>> Karim Rashid + Bobble

>> Bodum

>> view Home and Housewares 2010 gallery

The Solowheel: The Most Minimal Electric Transportation Possible

Remember the Enicycle? A company called Solowheel has taken the motorized unicycle idea one step further with its titular product, which combines gyro sensors with a 1,000-watt motor and can be carried like a briefcase (albeit a 20-pound one) when not in use.

One great thing about the Solowheel beyond its obvious function is that the battery, which will last for two hours, reclaims energy when going downhill or braking.

One sad thing: Apparently Johnny Hart's not going to see one red cent of profit out of the Solowheel's $1,000-plus price tag.

Cavemen are notoriously poor at
pursuing IP & copyright infringements

QuaDror, a New Structural Joint to Build On

Core77 had the opportunity to be invited into Dror Benshetrit's Studios to take a glimpse at QuaDror, his new structural joint. QuaDror is a lap joint construction that provides for limited freedom of movement without the use of a traditional pin. The design is elegant enough to prompt wonderment that it hasn't already been built in the world, even as forgotten carpentry. By superimposing two lap joint frames with miter cuts, Dror makes the formation of a collapsible structure possible. Once a load is applied to the top of the two frames, it spreads out to an optimal angle for load distribution. Dror said that the finished structure could attain the strength of a correspondingly wide concrete or steel structure while using only 20% of the material.

Just unveiled at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town South Africa, Dror sees a future where his joint could be used in everything from modular housing to wind absorbing highway barriers. As is appropriate for the Indaba conference, QuaDror can also easily be deployed as the basis for emergency housing. Using only the "knuckle" of his joint as a jig allows the fabrication of a strong foundation upon which local sustainable materials (bamboo, wood, etc.) could be used as trusses. Manufacturing the precision high load "knuckles" in steel would make emergency shipping extremely manageable. Further, due to the weight efficiency of his product, even QuaDror made of steel I-beams on a housing scale can be lifted by a few human beings without the need for additional equipment.

Dror plans to release the joint as a shareware license for distressed areas while the aestheticly oriented (and correspondingly wealthier) developed world would need to pay to see it in deployed in contract furniture, or as rapid prototyped shells for lighting. We look forward to QuaDror being unleashed into the world. Check out the below Quadror Video.

Future Vehicles Will All Be Electric, Right? Well, Not So Fast.

When describing something that is gaining momentum, we still use the expression "gaining steam," a throwback to the era of steam power. And if it seems ridiculous to refer to a technology that old, consider that we're still driving around in cars using internal combustion engines, which first started to "gain steam" over 100 years ago.

Most people believe the future of automobiles is in battery-powered electric engines, which would influence the design of the vehicles themselves; the concept of having small separate engines for each wheel, in particular, opens up some exciting possibilities for transportation designers. But there's still a chance things won't go that way, as there are still companies tinkering around with the internal combustion engine and actually making breakthroughs.

Most recently, two companies called Navistar and EcoMotors are collaborating to commercialize the latter's OPOC motor technology. OPOC stands for Opposing Piston/Opposing Cylinder, and in a nutshell the design uses two pistons crammed into one cylinder. Mated with EcoMotors' Electrically Controlled Clutch, this is a bit of a gamechanger in internal combustion.

Basically, internal combustion engines in and of themselves are not bad, just inefficient. They produce a fair amount of stinky and ecologically-unfriendly waste compared to the amount of motion they generate. EcoMotors' variant of the engine offers a heckuva lot more bang for the buck, so to speak, as their engine design is much smaller, uses less materials, and is more efficient. It can also be made to run on a variety of fuels, and the aforementioned clutch design can shut down cylinders not in use.

See the vid below for more details.

Interestingly enough, the concept of an OPOC engine was first advanced when internal combustion was still in its infancy, way back in 1907; it never caught on, for reasons far too complicated to go into here. But engine geeks interested in the tech can click here to check out fourteen other examples of OPOC engines devised over the years.