Category Archives: Industrial Design

I loved this chocolate shavings done in the classic color-pencil interpretation. Designed by nendo (many other great works in the website too!) in collaboration with patissier Tsujiguchi Hironobu, the mastermind behind popular dessert shops like Mont St. Claire and Le Chocolat de H, this initially awkward association between ‘delicious chocolate’ and ‘coloring stationery’ becomes gratifyingly apt:

Our “chocolate pencils” come in a number of cocoa blends that vary in intensity, and chocophiles can use the special “pencil sharpener” that comes with our plate to grate chocolate onto their dessert. Pencil filings are usually the unwanted remains of sharpening a pencil, but in this case, they’re the star!

I loved that design-gymnastic on how he managed to link pencil shavings to chocolate shavings – it certainly must take a very acute observation and mental creativity to note this, so that after the design is done everyone else can go “Ah it’s so logical right from the start!”.

And now I can’t look at chocolate, truffle or any other food-shavings without thinking of this.

If Sudoku or Rubik cube isn’t enough of a challenge, try Sudoku AND Rubik Cube! Warning, the reviews are not good at all.

Pull…………….and day turns into night!

Better View is a series of perforated black out roller blinds designed by Elina Aalto. Light seeps in through the small cut out holes creating an image of a city by night. The cut-outs represent the light in the windows of apartment buildings and office complexes in the city. With the Better View blind any  dreary view can be turned into an attractive cityscape. The series currently includes views from Helsinki and Tokyo. New additions portraying Stockholm and Paris are in progress. The images represent a selection of cities that Elina has traveled to in the last few years and the photographs are by her. The chosen views are of contrasting cityscapes: skyscrapers in Tokyo, 60s modernism in Helsinki and 19th century architecture in Paris.

This is probably perfect for those of us who hold ‘upside-down’ hours – e.g. if you work on night shift, or have to constantly readjust to jetlag or something. Or simply, if you wish to have a night-view of a city that you could not otherwise have (cue sappy line: ‘Oh my love, even though I can’t afford to fly you there, I brought the night-view of Paris to you!’. Clever design.

When I first saw the picture of this Nokia mobile phone I thought – “Wow, that look really sleek! A nice, simple and yet certainly stylish phone – is it yet another venture into their premium metal-casing series?” Reality isn’t always skin deep – and in this case, it was certainly a greater pleasure once I discovered the idea behind.

This is a concept phone where Nokia explores the idea of sustainability – certainly a very pertinent issue in a billion-unit-a-year industry:

We drew on a simple insight that in the not too distant future humanity will have extracted and worked much of the valuable minerals once buried in planet Earth. We will be compelled to reuse and celebrate what is essentially “above ground”. Thus we explored the use of reclaimed and upcycled materials that could ultimately change the way we make things.

In remade, recycled materials from metal cans, plastic bottles, and car tires are used beautifully; whilst helping reduce landfill and preserving natural resources. The concept also addresses cleaner engine technologies, and energy efficiency through power saving graphics.

I’m always irked by the common misconception that green products are a compromise to ‘the real thing’, a sacrifice or a trade-off one makes. And I’m glad this exploration shows that sustainable can be really appealing – this phone is certainly sexier than many on the market right now.

Here’s their little promo video:

 

Wow, this is really taking IKEA on its head and beating it flat (no pun intended). All the furniture that you see on the right came from that one (not-so) little box on the left picture. Just perfect for that somewhat temporary stays like those in college but have to rent their own apartments. Here’s how it’s done:

Designed by Marcel Krings & Sebastian Mühlhäuser, who are looking for production partners to bring this onto mass-market.