acorn bags: awesome bike bags, not so awesome production means

While looking for a place to buy raw leather online for a project I'm working on, I came across Acorn Bags, an anonymous husband-and-wife team who handmake classic-looking saddlebags for bicycles. While they don't sell raw leather, they do sell hand-cut punched leather strapsfor DIY'ers; but for those looking for finished product, they've got some good ones to offer as well. Check out their currently-sold-out Medium Saddlebag, up top, with expandable collar; I'm also a fan of their also-freaking-sold-out Roll Bag, below, for spare tubes and tools, and which can be stacked atop other bags.

Bespoke Innovations uses RP to make prosthetics with style

Bespoke Innovations is a San-Francisco-based firm founded by industrial designer Scott Summit and orthopedic surgeon/engineer Dr. Kenneth Trauner. Bespoke is using rapid prototyping to make a product with surprisingly little competition in the marketplace: Personalized prosthetics that not only work well, but look freaking cool.

"A current prosthetic is an amazing piece of engineering and research, but it's half of the equation," says Summit, featured in the NY Times video on rapid prototyping below. "A person is about form and shape and beauty and sensuality. That won't be reached by an assemblage of off-the-shelf mechanical parts."

Italian design street walking in nyc

To commemorate the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Milan Furniture Fair, I Saloni Milano NY kicks off a 6 week cultural series of events in NYC celebrating the best of Italian Design and Culture.

Tonight, 20 showrooms open their doors for festive gatherings with one-night only exclusive promotions starting at 6pm EST. Enjoy Italian delicacies from Eataly, Mario Batali's recently opened Italian food mega mart, and cocktails while enjoying the latest from Artemide, B&B Italia, Boffi, Cesana, Flos, Flou, Kartell and so many more.

LUNAR IN SEAKING FOR INTERACTIVE DESIGNER.

Director, Interaction Design
Lunar
San Francisco, CA

The Interaction Design team at LUNAR creates delightful and usable products and customer experiences. As the leader of this capability, you will create a competitive offering, capture market mindshare and build a talented team that can design imaginative and competent interfaces - from conceptual story down to the last pixel.

18k GOLD PLATED PIN BY JUSTIN GIGNAC

NYC based artist Justin Gignac is attempting to do just that with his newly released "Security!" pins. Best know for the Need (and Wants) for Salecollections, Gignac has teamed up with jewellery designer Max Steiner to create this 18k gold-plated "opulent interpretation of the shoplifter's worst enemy".

Much of Gignac's work celebrates the banality of such objects; elevating them momemtarily from their lowly positions (see for example his quite genius "NYC Garbage")—but one has to wonder whether such sumptuousness is the only way to go about this:

beautiful lamps

3D printing company i.materialise has produced some beautiful user-designed lamps using their RP methods, like the three above (designed by Tom Cluckers, Oleg Kurtsev, and the duo of Pieter-Jan Debuyst & Laurens Dekeyser, respectively). Now they're selling a lamp that provides user customization within their own design: The Appear Lamp. Made from polyamide, a material that's like nylon laid down with SLS, the $99 Appear features text of your choosing atop the lamp, and hidden within the lampshade itself; choose the font, type your own phrase, and i.materialise does the rest. The lampshade appears blank until the light's turned on. Check it out here.

d&ad awards 2011 call for entries

Hey rabble-rousers! Seeking a little global prestige for your latest design project? D&AD's call for entries for their 2011 Awards is open. With new submission categories in furniture design and interactive design for product, you could be one of the first industrial designers to claim a yellow pencil award in these yet-to-be recognized disciplines.