Test Drive: 2016 Ford Focus RS

This performance-oriented people’s car achieves a hyperfocal plane

Designing a car is a study in trade-offs. Manufacturers have to balance performance with economy, comfort with technology, cost with quality. Driver input versus computer control. All of these endless compromises are constantly being checked against strategies, budgets and timelines. And even when a company gets all the balances right, the resulting car can fall flat. The blueprint, as they say, isn’t the product. Which …

A Modular Luggage System, Bugaboo Boxer

The cult Dutch stroller company applies their tech and design to pushable suitcases

We’ve seen small footsteps toward better luggage (currently an industry drowning in designer labels and cookie-cutter design), like Raden’s lightweight case with integrated tech and G-Ro’s axle-less two-wheeler. But the latest offering comes from an Amsterdam-based company that’s been making cult-followed, design-driven strollers for the past 20 years. Bugaboo rethought what strollers could be capable of doing—if you were willing to pay over $1000—and became …

Jansen & de Bont Luminous Entity Type I Light

An innovative gesture-controlled light from a new Dutch design duo

Industrial designers Matthijs Jansen and Jorg de Bont launched their eponymous studio Jansen & de Bont and their debut product, the Luminous Entity Type I light fixture, at now! Le Off, one of the venues at Paris Design Week 2016. While an attractive light on its own, the patent-pending gesture-control technology that commands it is a fresh and innovative approach to managing light and brings …