I’m embarrassed to admit it but I was one of the first people to criticize the concept of cyber cafés and even bet they wouldn’t last. To cut the story short, I had to swallow my words and I’m here to make amends. What we have here is the Biz Café – a concept targeted towards the jet-set workaholics who need gadget ready environments even while relaxing with a cup of coffee.
Designers: Youri Hong, Moonhwan Park & Hyoshin Kim
Let me tell you about the “kidult” factor – a play off the words kid and adult. It’s a philosophy that encourages play in interactions with objects adults use. The Kinetic Robots look like bronze toys but each one performs a utilitarian function and requires simple action to work. The Lamp has a manually controlled cable winder. The Music Box works by turning the little guy’s arms and the Sharpener has a butterfly winder. Shavings are saved in the lower compartment. They are adorable!
Designer: Monocomplex
A simple tweak in the body and proactive action of saving the cap, two good reasons to redesign the Glue Stick! The tear-shaped tube won’t roll off the table and the darn thing works ONLY if you latch the cap to the end. My office supply staff is going to be so happy!
Designer: Noh Ji Hun
Meet Freecutter, a clever little peripheral for your home and office. It’s a marriage between a cutter and scissor, where the cutter blade retracts into one of the scissor blades. A fine example of how to make things more multifunctional and of course, more than one way to accidentally cut my finger now.
Designer: Junho Jin
Crumpler, an Australian bag company, creates chic and smart urban bags, particularly their Heist Collection. The range is an ode to the working professional who doesn’t believe in sacrificing style. Each of the four Heist bags are designed to carry your tech gear and accommodates a 15 or 17 inch Macbook. A common thread between all four bags is a padded laptop sleeve, two internal pockets and a zipped external pocket.
Designer: Crumpler [ Buy it Here ]
All those who expected 2011 to be a dull year, you’re in for a rude shock. Everyday from Jan to December is as colorful as the rainbow! Rather set in a pattern of CMYK color fade called Chromo – a delightful Protein CMYK Color Fade 2011 Calendar that cleverly maps the 29.5-day lunar month. Available in portrait and landscape, this plastic coated ready-memo measures 120cm x 42cm. It comes bundled with a non-permanent marker, which I think is quite thoughtful! Happy Colorful February everyone for just £15!
Designer: William Rowe for Protein [ Buy it Here ]
I have been reading message boards for people who suffer from visual impairments and one discussion topic I found was how difficult it is to use rulers. The problem, especially with centimetres and millimeters, is that while the numbers on a ruler can be made bigger, the unit of measurement is fixed, so reading millimeters if you have problems with your sight becomes difficult.
Designer: Product Tank
Separating rubbish is time consuming and nobody likes to do it. A micro-level system to make the job easy is the Trash Classification Bin. The bin-in-bin is used to put in all your organic waste while the bigger bin holds inorganic stuff. A very non-messy and quick way to do your bit. I’ll take one for my office, please.
Designer: Hu Xinyuan
The Panel Bin has a metal spiral rib that stretches and adjusts to varying heights for your convenience. Simply line it with a disposable bag and you have a dustbin ready for use. The collapsible nature may be its unique selling point, but for me it’s the flat-pack convenience of storing and transporting that scores brownie points.
Designer: Zhejiang University, Inno Lab
The Post-it is Perfect, I have a wad of it sitting right here on my workstation and no complains at all. This is until I saw this SAVE Post-note concept design! It has an adhesive strip running right at the center of the pad, and it’s kinda fashioned like a cello tape reel. The idea is that you write a note and then just tear off the adequate amount of sheet, so no extra paper gets wasted. Small effective steps to a better planet!
Designers: Chu Li-Chiao, Yang Hsiang-Hui & Yang Kai-Cheng
The cool folks over at KINZO are expanding their office furniture series “KINZO AIR” which we’ve written about before. Now here’s a feature on the cabinet by the name of AIR CABIN. It’s a giant brick, a fantastic monolith which opens up to reveal an abundance of space for all your office supplies and/or whatever else you’d love to stack inside. This AIR CABIN is a low sideboard filing cabinet that “swallows up to 90 files” and hides them away in a piece of furniture that works more like a piece of architecture than a moveable construction.
Designer: KINZO
The Transparent Punch allows you to see where exactly you will be punching the hole in a paper. The red ring guides your placement and saves you from doing a shoddy job. I’m used to the double punch machine, but if a fancy-looking, practical one like this appears, I’m all for it!
Designers: Kisang Yoon and Kyubok Lee
There is one job that I don’t really have to do: sweeping. Why? Because I’m blessed with maid-service and my house-help really does a darn good job of it. So when I showed my help this Bin Pan, she was eager with excitement, pestering me to bring in one for the home. It is a clever design, to integrate the pan with the dustbin. It looks nice and works well, both at home and at office! Guess I owe her this one! One Bin Pan coming up!
Designer: Kawamura Ganjavian
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