William Sonoma offers this set of animal cookie cutters to make your own detailed assortment of homemade zoo cookies. The spring-loaded handle presses details into the cookie to get your kids’ imaginations roaring. And not only does the site offer this cool kitchen gadget, it also has a video tutorial of how to make the homemade cookies, with recipe and all!
There is something about knowing about the designer, as well as the design, that has always intrigued me. By learning more about the designer’s thought process, I can better understand their failures and successes to help me when I design. Ikea offers an animated feature to showcase a few of their designers and how they arrived at the design you see in stores. It is so cool to see the problems and solutions that are commonplace for both aspiring inventors and professional designers who bring products to market. Take a minute to view some of these design narratives, and try to picture yourself taking on these very same design challenges.
This holiday season has found many people re-gifting by means of a white elephant gift exchange. Curious as to where this term derived from, I came upon this article that explains the curse that is the white elephant. As it turns out, those useless, kitsch, or obsolete items you own may be the ideal gifts worth wrapping up for that company or family white elephant gift exchange.
I just realized the smart thing to do when asking Santa for pricey items. Just ask for the accessory first, then when he chuckles and asks “What is that for?”, it leads to great conversation about that ‘cannot live without’ item. Like this Flip case that is pretty much useless without the camera. (PLEASE don’t leave me hanging on Christmas morning Santa, have an elf make me a Flip camera too!)
Innovative design goes further than just product design. I once again found myself searching the Etsy website using their color match feature. This interactive, color-coded search feature allows shoppers to pick-a polka-dot color blob that matches that missing color in their life. Scroll over the endless field of hues, and then click your chosen color to access a wealth of products available that match that color. Now that is great design.
Yes, this list truly is a wish list. Modified butter knives, CD playing sneakers and prototyped wheeled transportation are among this shortlist of requests for the jolly old fat man this year. Yes, a few clicks online and some of these delightful toys could be mine, but, for the most part, these are all concepts.
Have you ever thought that what you consider to be waste, may, in fact, be useful for some other application? Check out this conceptual design, which takes every bit of dust, dirt and hair that your vacuum acquires and stuffs this animal into an allergen-full doll. Now, if there only was a way to put belly button lint to good use.
Maybe Santa will be kind enough to leave you one of these under the Christmas tree this year (or for just over $900 you can buy it yourself!) Trek now offers this whisper of a ride for those of us who would never miss the click and clack of the metal bicycle chain.
Canon has taken mini to a new level with this finger-pointing knuckle camera. This tiny, ring-sized camera may appear odd at first glance, but it’s not like you’re walking around with a clock on a chain around your neck.
When designing, you must always take into consideration that what you are about to create has most likely been done before – by nature. In acknowledging this truth, you open many doors for inspiration.
While cutting into a pomegranate recently, I reaffirmed this belief that nature has all of the answers you are looking for, if you only take the time to look. Every element of design that was instilled within me was popping out of the pomegranate: line, shape, color, texture, form, value, size.
Realizing that nature can help to make better design makes observing all around you so much more exciting. So, the next time you find yourself trying to conquer a formidable design challenge, look to nature to help you solve the problem.
