Dedicated to inspiring designers, inventors & the creative spirit in all of us.

With cold weather all around us, we are having to stack on layers of clothes to stay warm. And when you make your way back indoors and shed them, what do you do with all of those damp layers? 

Created to circulate air throughout all of your damp garments, DryGuy has designed Gear Tree, a coat rack of sorts. Hang any of your coats, gloves, boots or scarves and they’ll be dry and toasty the next time you need them.

No, this is not some fine liquor or celebrity cologne. This bottle is the means of delivering a homemade maple syrup from a Virginia farm to consumers everywhere with taste. The thick glass bottle, natural brown color and official seal (if I’ve ever seen one) make this a great example of simple product package design. Back Creek Farms did a good job in designing this maple leaf styled syrup bottle for lovers of breakfast everywhere.

What a clever way to package such a simple food. The NYC Spaghetti packaging was created by a University of Central Lancashire student, using the famous Chrysler Building as the platform on which the spaghetti noodles rest.

With a sense of humor and good timing on his side, rogue artist Diabetik of Washington D.C. might be able to pull this off without any fines or arrest. He has taken the liberty of decorating traffic cones with the ever-so-popular markings of traditional candy corn. No word on whether this has been allowed by the city, but I think it is quite creative and might make a few people slow down in time for the yearly trick-or-treat rush, which could use some slower traffic.

Going back to school means a lot of people buying a whole lot of new things. Teachers, students, parents; we are all consumers. With so many designs keeping the environment in mind during planning and manufacture, it would be nice to see a few students sporting green with their back to school gear. Here are a few products to get you started.

Newton running shoes are more than just green. The shoes laces, webbing, insole top and outer sole rubber are made of recycled materials. And there is more; the package is made of the same post-consumer paper waste as egg cartons. And to get greener than green, the shoe is stuffed with a pair of new socks and a reusable bag to avoid useless tissue paper that would normally get tossed after opening.

Every new school year sees last year’s trends moved aside for the hottest new items. Well, try going green with this 100% recycled material backpack. The cost of the backpack even includes a donation to American Rainforests, so chances are you will be helping to add a tree or two for your money well spent.

Radiohead, noted to be one of the greenest bands out there has extended its line of apparel to raincoats. The nice thing about their designer coat (other than it is made for Radiohead) is that it took 15 recycled PETG bottles to create it. Look cool, feel cool and be cool with this post-consumer jacket this fall.

And speaking of rainy fall weather, if campus life has you traveling by foot from class to class, be sure to pack an umbrella. This umbrella has a canopy made of 100% recycled PETG bottles with a frame made of 70% recycled steel, aluminum and ABS plastics. 

Pack up your pencils, pens and markers into this recycled supply pouch and feel good knowing that the world has one less tire in its landfills. And while you’re at it, stuff in the ruler made of, “read it together class: three plastic cups.”

Who goes to school without a notebook. If you are going to have to take notes, you might as well write onto something worth writing on. This recycled material notebook will have you daydreaming and doodling in no time, thanks to recycled juice cartons and plastic boxes.

Highlighters are a must for most note-takers and young scholars. Why not go green when you go yellow by using these Zebra-Eco highlighters made from 74% post-consumer waste. Go ahead, stuff it in that pouch you just read about.

Packing your lunch is a must for some students, by choice or necessity. Do it in style with this second-life juice pouch bag. This ECOutlet bag is made from materials once known as trash, but now known as green.

I would have to say the biggest complaint about going green, is all the green you spend in doing so. Although it can be costly to buy environmentally responsible products, sometimes I think it is worth it to do so, as with this computer. With an 80% smaller size, using 70% less energy and 75% less printed paperwork to go with it, this Dell desktop computer is definitely getting greener. You can even recycle 95% of the product after it becomes obsolete.

This standing ladle, “tate otama” in Japanese, is a smart design for keeping your ladle upright. Featured on Spoon and Tamago, a New York / Tokyo design blog for cross-cultural designs. This ladle design looks as if it was stopped in motion, dipping into the tabletop. Simple design, smooth texture, logical and practical use.

After personally going through the task of popping in and pulling out plugs for a long weekend away from home, I would have loved to have seen a couple of these at my fingertips last Thursday night. This is another simple idea brought to fruition; simple problem, simple solution — great design! These color-coded clip-on tags are a great way to visually manage the cords behind your computer or beneath your TV, making it easy to identify which one you want to tug out of the socket.

3M Canada hosted a design competition and the above are the winning entries, both from students of the Ontario College of Art and Design. The Scotch tape dispenser and post-it note dispensers were awarded the grand prize of actually going into production for the 2010 line of office products. I am in awe at how simple, yet clever the tape dispenser design is. Bravo to the winners!

I have once again stumbled upon this Rainbow Calendar in Corian. Use the number cubes and month blocks to maintain your own daily calendar. I love the vivid colors and the analog design of this desktop product. So simple, so cool, so ideal.

There is no way that you can call this a pizza box. This Norwegian design is void of any side flaps and is, in fact, not what we would recognize as a pizza box. Does it store a frozen pizza? Is it used to carry your pizza to your home around the corner? Does it have spikes in the cardboard to pierce the pizza and keep it from sliding? The clamshell design raises a lot of questions about how it functions; I am sure it explains that right on the box, but I can not read Norwegian. I think it is great to see designs like this that do not simply follow the conventional norm of how we store and transport items. It’s such a simple, creative approach to the problem of how a cross-cultural food is stored. Hmmm, pizza sounds so good right about now!