Weird, weird, weird… Italian design company Acquacalda has recently put forward one crazy product: Pic Nic Pants. It takes the advantage of people’s cross-legged position and therefore creates a simple table for outdoor use. But the only problem is that the “table” may be too soft and not stable enough, which means you need to get fast with your meals…
Sometimes the designers’ ideas are so fantastic but also simple that we really couldn’t stop asking: why nobody has thought of those before? No doubt those best ideas include this “Lunch Book” designed for Expo Milan 2015. It’s a recipe book made of paper dishes, which not only show a recipe but can serve as real dishes during the exhibition too.
Bondi is a smart little hanger with astonishing multi functions. According to your real needs, the Bondi can be used to hold a wide range of things, including your cellphones, keys, or even your books. With its flexible but practical design, Bondi can be used anywhere too, such as in your cars, on your bicycles, in your kitchen and so on. The possibilities are endless- as you think of a new possibility, the Bondi then manages to make it true.
Dubbel Duffel is a travel bag that can unzip to double its carrying capacity. It greatly meets the real need of people who’re travelling around: on their way to the destination when they don’t have too many things too take, they can just leave the duffel zipped-together so that they could keep items separately with the dual-compartment interior storage; while on their way back home when they’ve bought some souvenirs, they may then open the zipper to expand the bag. As only 30 in each color in each size is available, the Dubbel Duffel is actually limited in its quantity: if you love it, you must get it!
As a new year has already come, a new development in the OLED technology is also expected to emerge. Here, it comes! Philips and BASF have recently collaborated to create a transparent OLED that also acts as a window when switched off. Combined with solar cells, the new OLED is also self-powered and energy-gathering, capable of generating electricity during the day and offering electricity in the night. So when you use it as the car roof in the day, the OLED will stay transparent, ensuring you a bright and open interior; while you switch it into an interior light during the night, however, the OLED then offers light with the energy it gathered in daytime.
Tool Tank, just as its name implies, is a portable gadget that offers three different kinds of tools, including large and small Phillips head and flat head. Any of those heads can be magnetically attached into the turret so that people can use them conveniently and effortlessly.
Love playing with your iPad, but never mind what kind of sleeve or stand it is using? No, I couldn’t stand my iPad wearing something ugly, so I decide to buy it this smart Stand Sleeve (if the gadget will finally come into the market). It features a fashionable appearance, with a combination of bright white and red. Besides, the design utilizes an ingenious folding technique & magnets too, to conveniently shift it between a sleeve and a stand.
For small-apartment owners, the space-saving and multifunctional furniture sets are always welcomed, and on their lists there’s Claudio Sibille’s Sensei. The furniture set includes two chairs that could be used separately; but when you flip the chairs on their sides and piece them together, they would then serve as a table.
A trailer that can accommodate up to 20 kg of articles, a booster that makes bicycles zoom off with a speed of up to 19 miles per hour, all those are brief descriptions about the Ridekick. It can easily attach to most bikes, with a 500 watt battery that could get reenergized in four to six hours. On a single charge, the Ridekick can get the riders to any places within 12 miles, which is basically enough for a short trip.
Install the Clipp to any wood or plastic plates and then you can create your own tables… When not in use, the Clipp is also smart enough to ensure an easy storage.
Work smarter, not merely harder. FLEXiT is an ultra-flexible light that can be wrapped around tubes, bent into tight corners or magnetically fastened onto metal objects to serve as different types of lights: table light, camping light, work light, directional light and so on. Except for it adjustable shapes, the FLEXiT’s light functions can be changed too, offering low, medium and high light according to your various needs.
In cold cold winter, we’re likely to do almost everything in bed, including studying, working, playing and of course sleeping. But before that perfect plan for the winter holiday, we firstly need to find a best bed desk that is both practical and comfortable, and my choice? It’s undoubtedly the Scribe! The modular desk can hang anywhere when not in use, while holds books or laptops steadily to prevent them from rolling. Apart from its outstanding functions, the desk features a sleek appearance too, making it quite ideal as either a personal possession or gifts to others.
One, two or even ten different shapes of baking pans are not enough to people in deep love of baking cakes, so what they really need may be this Ribbon Adjustable Baking Pan. It’s made of silicon and magnets, attaching onto steel baking sheets in various shapes and sizes, so as to create beautifully-crafted delicious cakes.
Audio Wrap is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a bag wrapped with flexible speaker on the surface, allowing the users to enjoy music in a more convenient and fashionable way. The flexible speaker adopted to make these bags is developed by the governmental Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan, and it can produce the same volume as a small mobile speaker. So, when you wanna listen to music on the go, play your bag!
Honestly we seldom see laptop bags redesigned with many new functions, not to mention a bag that actually serves as a charger as well. This amazing design comes from Brad Ascalon, which utilizes wireless charging technology to convert a laptop bag into a charging machine. Now have a look at the bag: its inner tray is in fact the charger and its carrying strap actually contains USB male connector at one end and a plug on the other. So once connect the strap end to another computer or an electrical outlet, and then you can get your laptop recharged wirelessly. That’s not all! The same USB port allows the laptop bag to work as a thumb drive on its own too.
Any good idea about towel racks? To redesign their shapes, coat them with unique colors or endow them with new functions? Of course the last one is our option, so why not have a look at this Breeze Rack, a 2011 red dot design concept winner? It’s a multifunctional towel rack, serving as a hair drier, a bathroom ventilator and a sterilizer except for hanging towels. In other words, almost everything you would need to use in a bathroom can be found in the Breeze Rack, isn’t that great?!
Somebody cares quite much about the environment, so they are trying hard to avoid using too many bowls or bags in order to save water and other resources; others, like me, are just too lazy to do the housework so we try to use as few bowls as we can too. Yaps, we may have different motives, but we’re all forwarding in the same direction and we all need the “Twist” by Nick Burrows. It’s transformable, capable of shifting between a bag, a microwave oven proof container and an ordinary bowl. Just twist to change it, and then you can do something beneficial to both you and the environment.
LEGO, LEGO, LEGO, with repeatedly appearing in my vision, that word (and that toy) has already annoyed me so much that I really don’t want to see anything relevant to that. But except for this LEGO Brick iPhone Case. It’s something better than a LEGO toy, featuring removable block sections for us to neatly organize the headphone wires, and that’s in my mind the best part about the case. Of course the gadget comes with other features too, such as personalized combinations and camera lens protection.
What will the next-generation fluorescent lights be like? “D’Light” from H_Design can offer us a possible answer. Made of heat resistant tempered silicone material and LEDs, the D’Light is expandable and durable, saves both your efforts to install the light tube and your money spent on electricity bills. It can fit into different sizes of lights too, and all you need to do is to hook it to one end and expand the length to the other side. Easy and practical as that!
Apparently the 2011 Red Dot Design Concept has brought us with many innovative designs, except for those we’ve introduced before, the Adjustable Radiation Flashlight is another one we’d like to show you. It could shift between concentrated spot-light and wide flood-light modes, based on its flexible plastic plate which contains about 40 individual lights. Hence even though it is designed as one light, the gadget is actually something serving as several different types of lights.
It’s a vest, and also a scarf, to keep you warm in the winter in two different ways.
Why are designers so innovative? Almost every time I met some new designs I would ask myself that question. So you know, that question emerged again, after I accidentally saw the AudioBulb, Wireless Speaker Light Bulbs that bring both light and music to your home. It’s easy to use: simply replace ordinary bulbs with the AudioBulb, insert you iPod into the included dock, and then you’ll hear beautiful music coming from any places of your house. With warm light filled with your rooms, the AudioBulb is certainly the best thing related to the word “romantic”.
Quite frequently we see common things endowed with new functions or totally changed into other devices when designers try to use them in a different way, and these smart phone stands are rightly the result of innovative redesigns. As the lenses are replaced with transparent cups, these glasses then performs well to keep electronic other devices in place. They’re still foldable too, thus ensuring an easy transportation.
“Catch” features a temperature-resistant construction, performing well to prevent the grease or sauce from splattering whenever you rest it flat on a pan or use it as a barrier around the pan. When not in use, simply fold it up and put it in the drawer, and that wouldn’t require too much space.
Simple but practical, Survive Outdoors Longer’s (SOL) “Survival Blanket” costs you only six dollars while offers you much more help than you can ever expect. It’s made of “vacuum-metalized polyethylene” that reflects 90% of body heat and resists shredding, thus to ensure the users a warming shelter when they accidently need to survive in the wild. To provide you with more help, the blanket even comes with printed wilderness survival tips on the surface. So if you feel cold, put on the blanket. If you don’t know what to do, look at the blanket. Things will then go easy.
Undoubtedly it’s not the first time we introduce some lens accessories for iPhones, but an iPhone Lens Dial that combines three different types of lens? Oh, it’s still the first. On that dial you’ll find a wide-angle, a fisheye and telephoto lens, which can be easily shifted between each other via a rotation. Thus when you’re on a trip, you could take various kinds of photos and share them on Tweet with your friends instantly with your iPhone and such a functional lens dial.
ASUS is well-prepared to launch the world’s first-ever NVIDIA tegra 3 quad-core tablet, the “Prime”, that can transform into a laptop with easy operation. Featuring a 10.1-inch display, an 8.3mm-thick body while merely 586g of weight, the soon-coming tablet also comes with a hydro-oleophobic coating that makes it more fingerprint-resistant.
Sofa is not merely furniture, because it actually has a free soul too, with which the furniture not only creates different configurations, but also offers your room a stylish look. Each piece is built with a giant zipper, which allows several modules to be connected together and then to meet your various needs.
A common T-shirt? Well, you must be kidding, guys, coz you should know that everything demonstrated on I New Idea must feature something special… And this T-shirt is actually built with microfiber cloth to wipe your glasses or cell phone screens. Won’t that be amazing? You never need to take wiping cloth around if you’ve gotten these fabulous shirts!
With the Apple Company is promoting their products almost every year, the Twelve South is designing and launching new accessories for iPad, iPhone, iMac from time to time too. PlugBug is rightly a product from Twelve South, created to let two gadgets reenergized at the same time with merely one charger. It is essentially a splitter for the iPad/iPhone charger, and allows two devices get charged once attached to your MagSafe.
Never drop your cellphones again, with the Cellhandle. It features a strong sucker to stick onto the back of your cellphone steadily as well as an adjustable binder that goes around your fingers, so that you can simply use one finger to hold the mobile phone safely. Besides, the gadget can serves as a phone stand too, therefore to meet your various needs.
While we frequently see foldable paper animals, flowers or something else, have you ever met a foldable paper cover? Designed by Hamburg-based agency Paperlux for a magazine, the geometric cover is constructed of more than 140 triangles that allow the readers to fold the cover into any shapes they may want. Also, the cover can be used as foldable wrap for gifts if you no longer need it on the magazine.
Highly organized… As somebody who wants everything kept in a good order and also to have them convenient for reaching, I really love Giha Woo’s concept of the “Snick”. It comes with a shape cut by a knife, but actually allows the users to place their things in either the inside or the outside. Hence both your long items and short accessories are just at hand, simple enough to get and use.
Your iPhone certainly promises a good quality of photography, but you couldn’t always hold it by hands especially when you want to take a photo of yourselves. Well now, you can shot with iPhone in a stylish and convenient way – introducing the iPhone Tripod Mount and Stand. It allows you to your iPhone to any standard tripod and also doubles as an adjustable stand as well. Quite an ideal gift for iPhone fanciers.
Round, square, cloud, hand or water drop, although the appearances of cellphone holder keeps changing all the time, almost all the holders are using magnets, grippers, catches or a ledge to hold the cellphone in place. Except for the Gravity Mobile Phone Holder. Quite specially, the “What?Gravity” mobile phone holder features a soft-touch silicone panel to grip your cellphone. Seemingly it defies the gravity, hence its name.
Coffee shakes you up and wakes you up in the morning? Then why not let a coffee machine to give your home a refreshing look too? You know what I’m saying about, coz the new coffee machine designed by Song Ah Lee is rightly something that meets both you and your house’s needs. It can be built on the wall, offering a cup of coffee when you need it and acting as a modern decoration when not in use.
Apparently the Terrafugia Transition Flying Car is an advanced vehicle we’ll use in the future. It is literally a car with folding wings, thus it can both run on roads and flies in the air.
Made of energy-efficient LED light and translucent fibers, the Hobo Lantern is a stylish bag that also doubles as a portable luminary. It was inspired by the urban nightlife of Zona Tortona during Design Week, and via the design Todd MacAllen aims to offer people some fashionable and functional accessories. Powered by 8 AA batteries, the Hobo can be safely used even when the LED light is turned on, and you may find it fabulous to go across the streets with a glowing bag.
Led Zeppelin is a step ladder especially designed for the corner. It was named after rock band Led Zeppelin in reference to their 1971 track “Stairway to Heaven”, and we really wish it would lead us to the heaven too. But back to our real life, the ladder can rest flat against the wall and fit into the corner at a 45 degrees or 25 degrees, due to its unique shape of the top and the bottom rungs.
Annoying mornings again, with continuous cacophony of alarm clocks… Why couldn’t we wake up with something more intriguing? Such as the Guitar Alarm designed by Jamie McMahon. Handmade of birch plywood, walnut and stainless steel, the new alarm works in the same way as a musical instrument, sounding at the time set when powered. As it doesn’t show time at all, the piece can also be used as an artwork for home décor.
