Beehaus

Omlet, the designers behind the Eglu, are now taking on the world of bees. The Beehaus is a product designed to raise bees in your back yard or rooftop. Because as they say, bees in your garden, honey on your toast! The Beehaus holds 24 frames, enough for two colonies. It is designed to keep both you and your bees comfortable. It provides solid insulation to keep the bees warm, and a raised design for a suitable working height for you.

Looks like a great learning experience. Let's just hope your neighbours also love honey more then they hate bees.

Chocolate Mail

I'm constantly horrified at the idea of having to lick stamps or envelopes. They taste terrible. There is no need for this (as this week I discovered you can buy mint flavored fake blood - if they can make fake blood taste good, surely they can make stamps taste good). Enter the brilliant design mind of Toby Ng. Toby has created Chocolate Mail. It is a conceptual project about redesigning stamps to taste like chocolate. The chocolate stamps would come in 3 different flavors, dark, milk or white, and would be sold in sets of 24 resembling a chocolate bar.

Design makes me happy.

Miranda July Pillow Cases

My favorite ragging lunatic/artist/author is at it again. Miranda July has recently come out with a set of pillow cases, to help you sleep better (or worse... whatever). They read "Here you will dream of endless kissing" and "Here you will dream of people you admire exposing your fraudulence". Ha.

Hello Haptic

Hello Haptic is a set of tactile flash cards. The cards are designed to teach blind children about the diversity of nature. One side of the card has a braille description of the environment, and the other side is a 3D, tactile representation. The cards are arranged by subject; Forest, Beach, and Zoo. Hello Haptic was designed by Hongik University, Industrial Design student Rhea Jeong. The project won her a Silver award in this year's IDEA competition.

Sweet Dreams

I could do with some sweet dreams (especially after listening to the This American Life Fear of Sleep episode... bedbugs... grosssss). These iDreams pillow from Studio Psyho might do the trick. The pillow cases allow for a range of dream choices, from flying, to boobs (yes boobs).

I went to see Objectified tonight, along with every other designer in Seattle. I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to seeing it a second time. It had your usual cast of Industrial Design characters, examples, and stories. Jonathan Ive, Karim Rashid, and Marc Newson, all talking like design superstars (unfortunately no Philippe Starck). The IDEO team was talking about toothbrushes and the Smart team was talking about OXO and arthritis. There was a large part of the movie which was, appropriately, ID 101. I'm looking forward to sending my mom to see it. I've spent a good 10 years trying to explain to her, what it is I do. Maybe hearing it from someone else will answer all her questions.

There were a couple parts in the film that I thought were absolutely fabulous. Dieter Rams was his usual brilliant, classy, and fabulous self. I could have listened to him for the whole 2 hours. The second best part to me, unexpectedly, was the contributions of New York Times Magazine writer, Rob Walker. I'm going to have to start reading his column, Consumed, because he said a lot of stuff that really resonated with me.

Go see the movie. It rocks that documentaries about design exist. All designers should go and show their support.

Celebrity Scales

We've all been conditioned to compare ourselves to celebrities anyway, so why not just use that comparison as a unit of measure? Celebrity Scales are bathroom scales where the numbers have been replaced by names of celebrities. The scale was designed by Karl Toomey and is available for purchase at The Celebrity Scale Store. It also comes in different genres of celebrities (music, horror) or different units of measure (animals, cakes, new years resolutions).

Best Made Company Axes

It is amazing what a little bit of design can do, even if the only added value is aesthetic. Best Made Company has added just a touch of design to a very classic object, an axe. They manufacture a range of axes with painted handles. Each colored handle is given a clever name to compliment nice design with good branding. The designs are released seasonally, like fashion lines.

If none of this season's axes appeal to you, you can always request a custom, ideal, design. Design and branding doesn't come cheap (thank goodness it adds value), axes range from $235-$550. Brilliant. I'm not sure how this is going over with the lumberjack community, but the design community is drooling.

If you visit the website, be sure the check out the inspiration page. It's raw, honest, and fantastic.

Shelter in a Cart

For those who have little or no money in our society, homelessness is a big issue. Is there a place where design can help the homeless? Designboom hopes that there is. They sponsored this non-profit design competition called Shelter in a Cart. In all, 4247 designers from 95 countries contributed design ideas. Although the competition itself was judged as being a superficial approach to solving poverty and homelessness, I have a hard time considering that many people thinking deeply about homelessness a superficial activity. Judge the results for yourself.

One of my favorite contributions was this Tent Cart by Timo Niskanen of Finland. His design was also nominated for a 2007 Index Award. Hopefully you too will be inspired to work on non-profit designs.

Heklucht Bikestand + Pump

The Heklucht Bikestand is a place to lock up your bike combined with a bike pump to add air to your tires. The idea came out of a neighborhood revitalization project in Ypenburg, The Netherlands. The project's aim was to bring neighbors together in an interactive way. The bike stand itself has a nice utilitarian functionality to it. Putting the bike stand in front of houses creates an interesting but unnecessary element to the design story.

CMYK Pen

The CMYK Pen is a fun pen concept aimed at digital designers. Instead of the traditional blue, black, green and red inks, it contains cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Created by Roma Lubimov.

Touch Sight

Touch Sight is the first camera designed specifically for the visually impaired. It is a concept created by Chueh Lee and the Samsung China team. The camera is held against the photographer's head for stability. It records the image along with 3 seconds of audio to be used as a title. The image is then displayed on a flexible braille surface for the photographer to touch. Inspiring idea.

Slingbox

I've been meaning to buy a Slingbox for a while but just never got around to it. I finally got a chance to try one out this week... and it's amazing. If you don't know what a Slingbox is, basically it is a set top box that allows you to watch your home TV (DVR, DVD, satellite or any other video output device(s)) from your computer or mobile phone via the internet. It uses your home network to broadcast the signal. You can not only watch your TV, or other devices, but control them remotely.

Sling Media has been around for a few years now. They have won a bunch of awards including a few industrial design awards a couple years back.

I've been using my Slingbox on my laptop, both around the house and remotely, as well as on my Moto Q phone. The video streaming is fantastic. There is just a little bit of lag and pixelation... all very forgivable. The Slingbox Solo (connects to one device) costs about $150 with no subscription fees and HD support. They also make a Slingbox Pro which allows you to connect to up to 4 devices. Very impressive.

Ornamented Metal Lace Drain

The Ornamented Life has created a gorgeous series of metal lace drains, turning the ordinary into extraordinary. They are made out of hand-forced and laser-cut stainless steel.

Otto

According to designer Duncan Wilson, "Every object and surface in our environment has a whisper; subtle tremors and vibrations that are usually undetectable to the human ear, produced by the activity and movement of daily life." He developed Otto to give you a glimpse into those secret whispers of objects. Otto uses suction cups and magnets to latch onto objects and amplify their sounds into ambient music for your listening pleasure.

Wilton Rolling Pin

Rolling pins have looked and worked the same for decades. Wilton has finally successfully redesigned the rolling pin by addressing their one major flaw - they are hard to clean. The Wilton Rolling Pin has detachable handles, allowing it to be fully submersible in water and dishwasher safe. This is a major design victory on behalf of us lazy bakers. Design work by A2 Inc. Winner of an IDEA Bronze award.

Flee Digital Camera

Flee is a digital camera with an areal twist. The camera is built into a badminton birdie style housing with a Bluetooth transmitter. When Flee is thrown, it starts taking pictures and transmitting them to your mobile phone. Designed by Hakan Bogazpinar. (Found through Cool Hunting).

1:1000 Fly Swatter

Ha! I had a long day of personality tests today, so I have an extra appreciation for this 1:1000 fly swatter design. It appeals to my generous, compassionate side... Hey, I gave you a chance. Designed by Denis Belenko, Alexandr Brashenskiy.

Outdoor Cutlery

Anafim is a set of outdoor cutlery designed by d-Vision, an industrial design internship program. I don't think this cutlery is totally necessary. I don't see the difference is between carrying around half a fork or a whole fork. However... I still really like this idea. Not from a utility point of view, but from an experience point of view. I would enjoy using this cutlery. It has a fun natural and artistic feel to it. You could find just the right stick handle for your eating preferences. It also has the satisfying underlaying reference of making tools out of things in nature but with a modern twist where you don't have to sharpen your own blade. (Found through MoCo Loco).

Easy PB&J Jar

Mmmm, I love peanut butter. Everyone who loves peanut butter knows how much it sucks to get to the bottom of the jar (and not just because you are out of PB). Even if you are a talented scraper, the bottom of the jar is hard to get to, especially without getting peanut butter all over your hand or knife (or spoon if you are so inclined). Anyway... Sherwood Forlee has solved all of my problems with this Easy PB&J Jar. It includes the simple but brilliant improvement, both ends open to easily access the bottom of the jar.

Paper Plates

This is a fabulous graphic idea for paper plates. Actually it's a great idea for proper plates as well. These Paper Plates were created by Joshua Gajownik for Lilly Stein.

Flocks

I just discovered the company Flocks today. It's a dutch knitwear company that creates clothing, rugs and furniture. The company was started by designer Christien Meindertsma. All of their products come with fabulous graphic tags that give praise to the animal that supplied the raw materials for the product. My favorites are these angora gloves and the rug with looks like a scaled up version of a sweater (it was the giant knitting needle photo that sold me).

Re-Set

Re-Set is a great combination of two products, the Re-baby cradle and the Re-tire rocking chair. The two can be attached together using leather straps to create one super rocker. The cradle can also be repurposed later as a rocking horse (using the provided saddle replacement) allowing it to grow with your child. This lovely furniture was designed by the design collective e27.

11 - The Beautiful Game

11-The Beautiful Game is a stunning foosball table created by GRO design and Tim modelmakers. This one-off prototype will be showing next week at the Milan Design Week 2008. It's combination of fluid lines, lighting effects, and chromed players make this a truly elegant and modern take on a classic design. Let's hope they choose to put it into production.

Pigeon Ring Necklaces

I was attracted to these Pigeon Ring Necklaces from Chinny Chin Chin. It's an interesting concept of creating necklaces out of racing pigeon's tags. I think it was the packaging that really sold it on me. Each necklace comes with a stylin' portrait of the athlete, accompanied by some information about their likes and dislikes. I like Mr. T who enjoys mice and malted milk biscuits but dislikes vegetables. I'm going to get one of these for my friend Katy who adores pigeons. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog).

Silence

The Norwegian design studio, Permafrost, has a great series of rugs entitled Stories. Each rug in the collection has a series of tracks running across the side. I think the best one is Silence. It looks like a bunny ran across a snowy lawn. The tracks add a lot of character to a simple white rug.

D/A Clock

I've seen Alvin Aronson's D/A Clock a few times. I thought it was a sleek, modern take on a digital clock, but I didn't really get the idea that it was a digital/analogue clock until I watched this YouTube video of the clock in action. The lit numbers of a digital clock have been replaced by a physical representation of the numbers. Each minute transforms into the next to show a more ongoing view of time, much the same way an analogue clock does. (Thanks Jason!)

Egg Soldier EggCup

One of the simple joys of childhood is eating soft boiled eggs with soldiers. Only, I never had an egg with SOLDIERS! What kid (or grownup for that matter) wouldn't love this Egg Soldier EggCup by designer Reiko Kaneko. (Found through MoCo Loco).

Help

I'm head over heals (spelling error intended) for the folks over at Help. Their product offering is pretty simple. It consists of two products: Acetaminophen tablets entitled 'Help I Have a Headache' (Ha!) and band aids entitled 'Help I've Cut Myself' (Haha!). Their product line alone totally had me sold on the company... but there's more. They also try to be socially responsible. All of their packaging is made out of 100% recycled molded paper pulp and manufactured in the US by a factory that helps adults with learning disabilities. They also have a sense of humor. You can order customized 'Help I...' t-shirts on their website, where you fill in the blank with whatever tickles your funny bone. If all that doesn't make them awesome enough, they also offer other Help activities such as Help I'm Bored, Help I'm Illiterate, or Help I'm Homesick (my personal favorite!). I'm not sure who is behind the company Help, but I've decided you are totally awesome!

Honibe Honey Drops

Lots of people use honey to sweeten their coffee or tea. It's a nice healthy option to sugar, but it's a sticky, messy, pain in the butt. Honibe has created these convenient solid honey drops made out of 100% pure honey. This is such a good idea. (Found through Apartment Therapy).

Energy Bracelet

Canadian designer, Chet Domanski, has created these great one-off Energy Bracelets. They are made out of 'up-cycled' pieces of the Alberta natural gas line. Decommissioned pieces of the pipelines have been machined and chamfered into beautiful bracelets. Each bracelet is tagged with the geographical coordinates of the location from which the pipe was taken. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog).

LINC - The Lifecycle Concept Phone

The amazing designers at Kaleidoscope's Greener Grass project have come up with another interesting cell phone concept. Inspired by their attendance of the Greener Gadgets Conference, the LINC phone concept was designed with the product's entire lifecycle in mind. The phone is made to be easily disassembled. When LINC's hardware becomes obsolete, users are asked to ship in back to the company in exchange for an updated phone. The manufacturer then easily disassembles the phone using a directed radiant heat beam which targets its internal memory metal latch, releasing the assembly. The phone's components (glass, metal, electronics, etc.) are all appropriately recycled, reused, or safely disposed of (in the case of hazardous materials). In the quick and ever changing world of technology that we live in, it's great to see product designers not only focusing on how the product is used, but what happens to it when it needs replacing.

TaskWatch

TaskWatch isn't a new concept. In fact it's almost 4 years old. But I saw it on Apartment Therapy today and it gave me some inspiration to a scheduling issue I've been brainstorming around - so I thought I would share it. The idea is pretty simple. It's a clock in the middle of a white board. Users can write notes or titles associated with times of the day. It lends itself to slightly altered scheduling solutions than a linear time line.

The 15 Below Jacket

On its 15 year anniversary, the Canadian design company Taxi created The 15 Below Project. The aim of the project was to give back to the community by designing and producing a jacket for the homeless. With the help of Lida Baday, Taxi created a very well thought out jacket that addresses the needs of homeless people. The 15 Bellow Jacket is made of black waterproof, breathable, lightweight fabric. It has 9 pockets that can be stuffed with newspaper to transform the rain jacket into a warm insulated snow jacket. The jacket also folds down to be worn as a backpack or used as a pillow. Taxi is donating 3000 15 Below Jackets to homeless people in Canada and the US. You can read more about this inspiring project at The 15 Below Project's website.

Frozen Smiles

Ha! If someone served me a drink with denture shaped ice cubes in it... it would totally make my day! I can understand how people would find these ice cubes a little disturbing, but personally I think they are brilliantly hilarious. The Frozen Smiles ice tray is one of Jason Amendolara's witty designs for Fred. (Found through Pan-Dan).

Re-Shirt

I appreciate the idea of buying used clothes but I also find it hard to get past the fact that they once belonged to someone else. My overactive imagination gets caught up in thinking about who owned the clothes before me, what kind of life they lived in them and what sort of mischief they got up to. Re-Shirt has taken advantage of this fact and turned the story behind a used t-shirt into a selling feature. People donate their used t-shirt along with some insight into its existence so far. An orange label with a registration number is added to the shirt. From then on, all owners of the shirt can document their experiences with/in it, giving the shirt a life and history of its own.

I really enjoyed the story behind the t-shirt shown above. Here it is as told from its previous owner's perspective: "I was wearing this t-shirt on a Sunday picnic with friends, kids and dogs. It was a nice autumn day and we enjoyed our sandwiches and a really very nice homemade chocolate cake while sitting on our blankets in the grass on a sunny hill north of Vienna, Austria overlooking the skyline of the city."

Puma Glow Rider

The Puma Glow Rider is the next rev of the Puma Bike, available this spring. The bike is part of Puma's Urban Mobility collection, focusing on products for young city dwellers. Similar to previous versions of the bike, the Glow Rider has several urban-centric features such as a built in auto-destruct lock and a semi-fold frame for transporting on buses or subways. The Glow Rider's main new feature is it's glow-in-the-dark frame to increase the bikes visibility at night. The frame will be available in two colors (Buttermilk which glows green, and Orange which glows more orange). The new bike will also come with a matching currier bag, riding jacket and t-shirt. This is a very well thought out city bike. All the features you need, and nothing you don't.

Lakai Recycled Shoes

Lakai has a refreshing approach to environmentally friendly shoes. They call it The Recycling Program. To eliminate waste, material offcuts that would otherwise be thrown out are used on the panels of The Recycling Program shoes. The shoe's sole is created from a mix of regrind rubber waste and new rubber, reducing the use of new material by 50%. No two shoes are exactly alike. In being honest to the recycling approach, designers only specify which of the shoe pannels are to be make out of recycled material. It is up to the manufacturers to determine what materials they have excess offcuts of to apply. Two of Lakai's shoe styles are available in The Recycling Program, the Kost-One (shown here) and the Coda. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog).

Baggu

The other day, my coworker Jessie was telling me that her New Year's resolution this year is to not use plastic bags. This struck me as a very smart and sensible resolution. It's a positive change, it's a bit of a challenge and it's realistically achievable. Anyway... this reminded me that I've been meaning to purchase these Baggu reusable shopping bags. I know there are a lot of reusable bags out there right now, but these are the ones I chose to go with. I like them because they are large (as in they hold a lot of stuff), but fold down to a small wallet size package. They come in all sorts of wonderful colours and cost $8 each (or $22 for 3 or $38 for 6, if you are really committed).

ClothTAG

Laundry instruction icons seem to be from a time before it was important to make icons easily understandable. I can never remember what the triangle means vs the circle. I always have to look them up - and I consider laundry one of my more developed domestic skills. One solution to this problem would be to just make better icons. Or... go the high tech route, like designer Samgmin Bae, and break out the RFIDs. Samgmin's ClothTAG concept uses the idea that laundry labels could have an RFID element that would be readable by washing machines and driers. Young domestic goddesses like myself (ha!) wouldn't have to know anything about laundry, the machines would be able to make appropriate adjustments. This isn't a completely new idea, but it's a more well executed concept then some of the others I've seen. (Found through Yanko Design).

Sony's ODO Twirl N' Take

Earlier this year, Sony introduced a line of green concept gadgets, called ODO, which get their power from alternative sources such as solar panels and mechanical cranks. The newest addition to the ODO line is this Twirl N' Take digital camera. Fifteen seconds or rolling provides enough juice for one photo. I like that they chose to go with rolling over a hand crank. It seems much less tedious. The rolling approach also lead to an interesting form which also creates a natural view finder and handle. Very cool concept. (Found through Apartment Therapy Re-Nest).

Constructive Eating Utensils

I'm filing this one under: Things that make me wish I was a two year old boy. It's a super cute construction utensil set for children, designed by a husband and wife team. I love that the set consists of a fork, spoon, and PUSHER! Can you tell that I got in trouble for playing with my food? Newly available on The Spoon Sisters website.

Project 99

Project 99 is a furniture project by Dutch designers Stefan Louwerse and Richard Broeksema. They are creating 99 pieces of original furniture based on refurbished chair frames. The project is made up of number of series, each focusing on a different reupholstering material including second-hand clothing, wallpaper, rubber and cowhide. The chairs cost (appropriately) 99 Euros each. (Found through Pan-Dan).

Cabbie Napkins

One of the most important responsibilities of hosting a party is making sure everybody gets home safely. That job is made much easier with these Cabbie Napkins. Just fill in your drunken guest's destination and appropriate cash stash location and file them towards a taxi. Best to order them now to make sure they arrive before New Years.

Andrew English Fingerprint Bands

Andrew English has created a lovely twist on the common wedding band engraving. His rings come with a hand-engraved imprint of your partner's fingerprint, making each ring truly unique. (Found through Pan-dan).

Oil and Vinegar Pump

I like the thinking behind this oil and vinegar pump. You push the large silicon button to pump the liquid into the top measuring cup. After you have the right amount (measurable in teaspoons, tablespoons, ounces or milliliters) you just pour the liquid out of the top. It's pretty, neat, and saves you some dishes. Available in the US for $14.95 at Crate and Barrel. (Found through Cooking Gadgets).

Bikefast

Bike+Breakfast=Bikefast... I'm not sure anything else needs to be said. Created by industrial design student Philipp Drexler. (Found through Pan-Dan).

Reebok Timetanium Shoes

Check out these crazy limited edition custom Reeboks by artist/programmer/author/MIT professor John Maeda. They are called Timetanium and are designed to represent Maeda's theory on how to simplify time. The interior lining of the shoe shows the handwritten code used to create the graphic on the exterior of the shoe. The graphics starts out very complex and colorful at the heel and gets simpler with more linear lines and minimal color at the toe. If you want a pair of these it is already too late. They only produced 100 which sold out within the first day or so. (Found through Cool Hunting).

Charlybox

The Charlybox is a smart and simple lunch box for dogs. It is made up of two haves. One is a 2 liter water canteen and the other is a food and water bowl. I really like the design language on this product. It's very utilitarian, while still maintaining the element of fun necessary in pet products. (Found through Sub-Studio Design Blog).

101 Gadgets that Changed the World

The Belfast Telegraph recently published this list of 101 gadgets that changed the world. It is a pretty interesting list. Items on the list range from light bulbs to Gore Tex. Most of them are products that you can't imagine your life without today. (Found through Apartment Therapy).