Skorder

Johanna Eliason, a student at the School of Design and Crafts at Göteborg University, has created a classy shoe rack called Skorder (sko is shoe in Swedish). The rack resembles a stack of shoeboxes and each shelf or cubby is covered in gold leaf. Perfect for any shoeaholic. Skorder spruces up any shoe collection by providing a display venue that makes shoes look as good as they once did in the store.

Facade Vase

The designers ask of consumers: "Do we really need a beautiful vase, or do we only need a beautiful facade for the vase?" They've created that façade so that you'll never need to buy a vase again: it's basically an industrial wool felt condom to cover your standard-issue plastic water bottle.
It's a great idea, with one serious flaw: the water bottle for which the skin is designed may not exist much longer. Already, Nestle-owned water labels Poland Springs and Deer Park have changed their half-liter bottles to a more bulbous but environmentally-friendly shape that uses less plastic. And trendy bottled waters like Fiji and Fred won't work with the Façade either. Perhaps the designers should have shaped the felt for a more reliable mold: wine and beer bottles aren't going anywhere. Yet.

Single Person Cooker

The Single Person Cooker is is portable kitchen — everything about its design helps you cook on the go or in a tight space. It's lid is actually a cutting board, and the unit has a space for cooking utensils, a heated range, bowls and a Wi-Fi enabled viewer that will allow the chef to pull in recipes from the Internet.

Olaf Breuning

In honor of Swiss artist Olaf Breuning's inclusion in the 2008 Whitney Biennial, this video visits his Manhattan studio. In the midst of working on his two-part installation for the show, Olaf takes the time to explain his inspiration and thinking behind his mini army made of readymade objects and a recreation of a 1932 photograph. There's also plenty of examples of his other playfully absurd photographs, videos and sculptures as well as a few comments about how materials spark his creativity, pop culture and the differences of working out of a place of pleasure vs. struggle

China Design 2026

The world's largest growing country and most rapidly developing sits on the cusp of answering many of the design challenges that have plagued every other industrial country thru its growing pains. China is unique with its own culture and style so design solutions from the west can not simply be grafted upon the country and be expected to work. To answer these questions a bunch of European design students traveled to China to work with Chinese design students to understand those challenges, to take the experience the west has had with those same problems, and learn how to apply them successfully to China. So the question is, what will China be like in 2026? One example is the image above, the Fetish Mask. I'm sure you've seen news footage and images of Chinese people walking around with masks on. They wear it to protect themselves from the polluted air and to a lesser extent, disease. We all know those paper dentists masks do little to actually protect you but herein lies the problem; how to do you take something that is socially ingrained and redesign it for the future? The masks filters the incoming air, and medically sterilizes biological and chemical particles. It also incorporates a non-condensation mechanism so your exhaled breath doesn't build up and cause you to sweat underneath the mask. more info: http://www2.kh-berlin.de/china/

NOD Lamp

Here's a novel idea that we don't quite understand: a nightlight that holds your glasses, bedside reading, and cell phone. It even has a hole in back so that you can wire your cell phone or iPod charger right into it.

We can see this being useful, maybe, for our very near or far-sighted friends who are always groping for their glasses in the mornings. But let's face it, this lamp looks like a sideways division sign and costs a staggering $220.

Weirdest Fitness Device Ever!

Don't you think so? :)

Milky Way In Your Palm

One of best parts of Will Smith's first slapstick-sci-fi "Men In Black" film is the part when an entire galaxy is found living inside a tiny marble. The scene was a mind-blowing moment in sci-fi history and now you can relive the cognitive dissonance too with design firm Living World's Milky Way galaxy 3D model. Created using real space data culled by Eiichiro Kokubo, Assistant Professor at Japan's National Astronomical Observatory and Osaka University's Kato Tsunehiko, the three dimensional cube encased model does indeed look you're holding an entire galaxy in the palm of your hand. But holding 80,000 laser rendered stars in your hand isn't cheap, the cube costs 80,000 yen ($770) here.

Austroflamm

Ever hear of a wood-burning stove with a memory? That’s what Pi-Ko by Austroflamm has, but it’s not going to remember how hot it got yesterday — no, nothing like that — it retains heat and keeps radiating warmth for nine hours after the fire is out.

Check out this other model by Austroflamm, looking a bit like the front of a flying sub and stylish enough to be called Vogue. Too bad these stoves cost $5000, but maybe by next winter when heating oil (which hit a record high price of $104.52/barrel today) and natural gas prices are a lot higher, that steep price for a highly efficient wood burner might not seem so bad.

C-Bot

The C-Bot, by designer Niklas Galler, is a clever way to check a building's structural integrity and perform other vertical tasks. Taking a page from geckos and other wall-climbing lizards, the C-Bot's footpads are covered by tiny nano-hairs that act imperceptibly as adhesive to whatever surface it's climbing on to give it some grip. Then, with a sensor emitting ultrasonic rays, the C-Bot scans for all manner of defects, from rust to mildew.
Sounds pretty groovy, right? Let's see where we're at in making the C-Bot a reality. Step one: Design awesome robot. Step two: Uh... Hmm... Step three: Have newly built robots deployed all over the city.
Damn you, meddling second step. Foiled again!

TV Chandelier

If Big Brother had a chandelier, this would be it. "End of an Era" is an art project created by Ian Burns that attaches 16 small black-and-white TVs to a chandelier-ish frame. Each screen displays a live video feed (presumably received via the extended antennas in the pic), and from the looks of the screens, it's the same one on each. Well, that's kinda boring. I want 16 different live video feeds, Ian. I want this thing to look like some kind of 24 scene cutaway run amok — think you can handle that next time?
The spider-like fixture was part of Burns' collection displayed at the Spencer Brownstone Gallery in Soho in New York City last year. Too bad it's over — I'd love to see the remote control for this thing. I can only hope some bold manufacturer saw it and is currently planning on debuting a multi-screen, ceiling-mounted monitor sometime soon.

Enjoy The Summer In A Rotating Sphere Lounger

One easy way to avoid the nuisances of summer — like the rain, bugs and annoying neighbors — is with the Rotating Sphere Lounger. This is a spherical lounger that sits outside, can rotate and encloses in the individuals to enjoy uninterrupted fun in the faux outdoors. The rotating lounger is constructed of treated pine is is large enough for a circular seating bench as well as a center table — great for games of pinochle or maybe drinking games if you are feeling extra adventurous.
Most important, the sphere keeps out the nastiness known as the outdoors! The entire sphere sits on a ball-bearing track and can manually rotate, but something as simple as a ball-bearing track is just asking to be automated, which could easily be done. And for $13,000, one would expect for this lounging sphere to be automated.

Brass Knuckle Chair

Is your furniture pissing you off? Have an old couch that stands out too much? Some retro table that thinks it's the center of attention? Put all your furnishings in their place with the Brass Knuckle Chair. Nothing says, "simmer down and pay attention to me" like a jagged-metal frame with spikes adorning the back like some kind of recliner equivalent of Godzilla. I'm not so sure about the wheels, but hey — whatever Brass Knuckle Chair wants, Brass Knuckle Chair gets.

Kenji Yanobe

The works of Kenji Yanobe are renowned in the Japanese art world for their nightmarish takes on the future. But peeling through Yanobe's portfolio of work reveals a particular obsession with man-meets-machine contraptions. From the fire breathing Giant Torayan (created as a child's toy, it actually breathes fire), to the erotic bug-like Radiation Suit Atom to the Dune-esque features of the Mini Tanking Machine, Yanobe's work hints at a future many of us would be afraid of, and others would revel in. If the dark side of sci-fi is your cup of sake, Yanobe's work will be on display at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art until April 16th.

Silicon Light Switches

Ross McBride is an Industrial Designer that I've admired for sometime now. There's always a sense of art infused with everything he does. My favorite product of his are the silicon light switches. They're completely different from anything you could find at your local Home Depot and bring an air of tech to something so simple as a switch plate.

Tangram Shelving Solution

I've been obsessing over bookshelves lately. I spent part of my weekend in a library just to admire their shelves (and to discuss possible Harry Potter conspiracy theories). This particular shelving system called the Tangram by LAGO design studio injects a nice dose of humor in what is an otherwise standardized design. The systems comes in triads and shadow boxes to leave you free to create whatever you like. I found the above image amusing.

Unorthodox Taxidermy

Dr. Seuss was more than some silly book about weird characters that spoke in a hypnotic rhythmic rhyme. First and foremost, Seuss was an artist. Even today, his art stands to be unique and instantly recognizable. During the 30's, Seuss started to explore mediums beyond two dimensional drawings. Coupled with his esoteric nature, he created sculptures made from real animal parts called the Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy. Most of them are sold out but they are beautiful to say the least. I wish I could afford one.

Paper Plane Coffee Table

This scale paper plane model by UK designer Lorraine Brennan had me foaming at the mouth. It's made of 2mm powder coated steel with silicon insets. A perfect plane - a perfect coffee table. No plans for production yet but perhaps a copy could be made with simple plywood. Can someone help me?

Enlightened Couch

This sofa sleeper is designed by Giovannoni and Rodrigo Torres for domodinamica. Inspired by the greek god of sleep, it has two arms with lights in place of the gods wings. The arms are made of flexible polyurethane resins covered with elastic fabrics which makes them flexible to point the lights anywhere in or around the couch. It's not the most attractive or perhaps captivating piece of furniture one could own, but this piece truly belongs in reader's home.

Sumo Pillow

This giant pillow from Sumolounge is made from 100% space age rip-proof nylon that can't stain, smell or rip and will please your every need for relaxation. This thing is huge and it looks very comfortable, I'm thinking it can even serve as a guest bed when needed! It's available right now for only 129$ and even available in hot pink! Who's getting me one?