Design

Bois Durci is a unique material with a fascinating history and diverse applications. Developed in the mid-19th century by inventor François Désiré Froment-Meurice, Bois Durci is a composite material made from natural wood dust or shavings combined with a binding agent such as egg white or blood. The production process involves compressing the wood particles and binding agent under high pressure and heat, resulting in a dense and durable material that closely resembles natural wood in appearance and texture. However, Bois Durci possesses unique properties that set it apart, including increased hardness, resistance to moisture, and the ability to be molded and shaped into various forms. Bois Durci quickly gained popularity as a versatile material for decorative and functional objects, ranging from jewelry and buttons to knife handles, pipe stems, and even small sculptures. Its durability and aesthetic appeal made it a favored choice among artisans and craftsmen during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ramune is a Japanese carbonated soft drink. It was introduced in 1884 in Kobe by the British pharmacist Alexander Cameron Sim. Ramune is available in a Codd-neck bottle, a heavy glass bottle whose mouth is sealed by a round marble (instead of a cap) due to the pressure of the carbonated contents. In 1884, Sim introduced this carbonated beverage based on lemonade to the Kobe foreign settlement. This drink, sold in the distinctive Codd-neck bottle, soon became very popular with the local Japanese after it was advertised in the Tokyo Mainichi Newspaper as a preventative for cholera. The drink remains a popular soft drink, sold worldwide, under the name of ramune. Although the Codd-neck bottle was once commonly used for carbonated drinks, today Ramune, along with Banta, is one of its very few users. People trying Ramune for the first time sometimes find it difficult to drink, as it takes practice to learn to stop the marble from blocking the flow.

When Georges Roy set out to combine the best qualities of an automobile with the thrills of a motorcycle, he created a remarkable machine – the Majestic. It’s the ultimate French Art Deco motorcycle, as his design enabled a free hand to create stylish, stunning bodywork over a radical chassis. The Majestic was revolutionary in 1929, and the ideas Georges Roy made into metal are still being explored by motorcycle designers.

Inuit snow goggles, also known as "Iggaak" or "Ivigarlik," are traditional eyewear used by the indigenous Inuit people of the Arctic regions, including Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia. These goggles are ingeniously designed to protect the eyes from snow blindness, a condition caused by the intense glare of sunlight reflecting off snow and ice. The construction of Inuit snow goggles typically involves a narrow horizontal slit or groove carved into a single piece of bone, wood, or other translucent material, such as walrus ivory or caribou antler.

The Hermes 3000 was a lightweight, segment-shifted portable typewriter manufactured by Paillard-Bolex. William Kotzwinkle's 1972 novel was named Hermes 3000 after the machine. During his acceptance speech for "Best Screenplay (Brokeback Mountain)" at the 2006 Golden Globes, author Larry McMurtry specifically mentioned his Hermes 3000, stating: "Most heartfelt, I thank my typewriter. My typewriter is a Hermes 3000, surely one of the noblest instruments of European genius. It has kept me for thirty years out of the dry embrace of the computer". Other notable users of the machine are Sam Shepard, Eugène Ionesco and Stephen Fry. Beat writer Jack Kerouac wrote his final novel, Vanity of Duluoz, on the Hermes 3000 in 1966.

Luigi Colani was a German industrial designer known for his groundbreaking and futuristic design concepts across various fields, including transportation, consumer products, and architecture. Colani's designs are characterized by their organic and aerodynamic forms, inspired by nature and biomimicry principles.

Mitsuo Katsui is a Japanese graphic designer.

The Pazyryk rug is one of the oldest carpets in the world, dating around the 4th–3rd centuries BC. It is now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Pazyryk rug was found in 1949 in the grave of a Scythian nobleman in the Bolshoy Ulagan dry valley of the Altai Mountains in Kazakhstan. The Pazyryk rug had been frozen in the ice and it was very well preserved.

The Aurora was an American automobile prototype manufactured by Father Alfred A. Juliano, a Catholic priest, from 1957 to 1958. At a retail price of $12,000.00, it would have been priced just under the most costly car in the U.S., the $13,000.00 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. The Aurora is mainly remembered for its appearance, however, and is often cited in lists of the ugliest cars ever, frequently as the single ugliest car.