Design Facts

Bill Gates' house was designed using a Macintosh computer.

Las Vegas casinos don't have clocks on their main gambling floors.

The Nobel Peace Prize medal depicts 3 naked men with their hands on each others shoulders.

Daizi Zheng, a Chinese designer based in London, created a concept phone for Nokia that would run on Coca-Cola. Her design used a bio-battery with enzymes to generate electricity from the sugar in the drink.

Nike Air Soles contain pressurized nitrogen gas, not regular air, because nitrogen molecules are larger and leak out more slowly.

The Gmail logo was designed the night before it was launched.

The hands of the clock on the back of the $100 bill are set at approximately 4:10.

The purpose of the indentation at the bottom of a wine bottle is to strengthen the structure of the bottle.

There's a knife-fork hybrid called a knork.

The hole in a soda can tab can be rotated to hold a straw in place, preventing it from rising up due to carbonation bubbles.

There's a Japanese artist and designer who makes wedding rings embedded with the the sound waves for "I do".

There's a regenerative candle that creates a new candle as it melts.

There's a love mattress that is specifically designed for couples who sleep on each other's arms.

The upside-down ketchup bottle earned its inventor 13 million dollars.

Starbucks uses round tables to make solo coffee drinkers feel less alone.

There is a bed called the Cuddle Mattress that it is divided into layers of foam for your arm to slip though.

A London skyscraper accidentally became a giant curved mirror. Its glass facade focused sunlight into a beam so intense it melted a parked Jaguar, scorched a shop, and let a reporter fry an egg on the pavement. The architect had built the same flaw in Las Vegas years earlier.

Betty Willis designed the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign in 1959 and never copyrighted it. She called it her gift to the city, leaving the design free for anyone to use. That is why it appears legally on T-shirts, postcards, and souvenirs around the world with no royalties owed. She once said: "I should make a buck out of it. Everybody else is."