All posts filed under: Things for Organizing

Memories USB Collection

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I met Vanessa Redondo during the London Design Festival, where she was displaying her Memories collection of ceramic building-shaped USB sticks. Redondo, an architect and designer, was born in Caracas, Venezuela and currently lives in Madrid. She began her career as an architect and graduated from the Central University of Venezuela in 2010, after which she studied photography and design at the Instituto Europeo di Design (IED) in Spain. Inspired by the city of Caracas, her Memories collection of USB sticks are an amalgamation of her studies. The green and cream ceramic pieces mimic skyscrapers and small buildings to form a little cityscape on the wooden base. The concept, says Redondo, is to be able to organize important life events and keep them within reach. “Nowadays we’ve become more digital…we load information in computers and are no longer aware of it, we accumulate for no reason,” she writes. Her collection of USB memory sticks are an attempt to bring value back to this common digital storage tool. “In the end…it has become a delicate piece with …

Symmetrick Roof Cargo Box by Nendo

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  The cargo box is one of those underserved product types. You know they are out there, but no one ever gets excited about them. Nendo‘s new symmetrick roof cargo box hopes to move things along a bit. Designed as part of the brand renewal for Terzo, a car carrier brand produced by Piaa, this new box is symmetrical front to back as well as from left to right. This dual symmetry allows the carrier to be loaded with either end at the front, for opening on either the left or right side. The underside of the cargo boxes needed to be textured to take the weight of the cargo, so Nendo used a dot pattern based on the brand logo. When viewed from some angles, the logo reflects onto the car roof “for a subtle added playfulness” according to the designers. It’s not revolutionary, but a clean, streamlined design that is a improvement in the category.   Product photos by Hiroshi Iwasaki. Package photo by Akihiro Yoshida.

Light Bulb Magnets

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Along with the Museum of the City of New York’s new textile exhibition “The World of D.D. and Leslie Tillett,” (on display through February 3rd) the museum shop is offering a set of 18 light bulb magnets designed by D.D. and Leslie’s daughter Linnaea Tillett, owner of Brooklyn-based Tillett Lighting. Linnaea, who once served as a juror in a product design competition I run for my day job, has a doctorate in environmental psychology, and is celebrated for her firm’s lighting of public and private interiors, including, most recently, the lighting for FDR Four Freedoms Park on New York City’s Roosevelt Island. Linnaea worked with Tillett in-house designer/illustrator Charlie Brokate, whose black and white drawings appear on the front of each magnet. LEDs, CFLs, and other sources of illumination are joined by the ever-present cell phone, which often doubles as a light in a dark theater. The set of 18 magnets are available for $22 from the shop of the Museum of the City of New York, http://www.mcny.org

Movember Bottle Opener & Money Clips

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In honor of Movember — the annual event in November where men grow mustaches in order to bring awareness to the early detection, diagnosis, and treatment options for cancer — 1% percent of the sale of the mustache-toting bottle opener, money clip, and money clamp from bottleBoss will be donated to support awareness and education for men’s health issues, especially prostate and testicular cancer. According to statistics provided by the Movember movement, one out of two men will get cancer in their lifetime and one in six men is expected to get prostate cancer.  All of the funds raised by the movement will go towards prostate cancer and testicular cancer initiatives. $9.95 (bottle opener); $15.95 (money clip); $19.97 (money clamp).

Empty Memory USB Collection

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I met designer Yoo-Kyung Shin last May at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York City, where she was displaying a stunning collection of 4GB USB memory sticks that double as jewelry and objets d’art. Shin founded the London–based design studio Logical Art with Hanhsi Chen after their graduation from the Royal College of Art. The pair’s Empty Memory collection features two designs, Structure and Transparency, that contain “a physical emptiness in its sculptural form” that you can fill with your own “memory.” Structure’s geometric form can only be made with the lost-wax casting method that is normally used for industrial components. Transparency expresses its emptiness another way — it is 50% clear acrylic. After a long search for the right production partner, the designers located a manufacturer in Taiwan that is now producing pieces for the studio. Each piece is cast in high-quality, 316 stainless steel, then hand-polished by craftsmen, and finished in various colors. The Structure version an extra benefit — you can thread a chain through it and wear it as a modern pendant, or …

Kaikado Canisters

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Kyoto-based Kaikado has been producing airtight canisters for tea and other items since 1875. Made through a manufacturing process that involves as many as 140 steps, the tea caddies, or chazutsu, have been handmade virtually the same way since the company was founded. A double-walled construction protects the leaves from humidity while helping them maintain their scent. As the joints of the lid and body are lined up, the lid descends in a smooth, silent motion while expelling air from the container. Depending on the metal you choose, the color will change over time — copper in 1-2 years, brass in 3-5 years, and tin in 30-40 years. I love how the manufacturer describes the unique patination process that happens through handling the canisters. “Gently caressing the entire body of chazutsu day after day brings out a mysteriously elegant sheen and gleam to its years. Chazutsu provides utility and pleasure as it ages gracefully with ownership.” Wow, that’s some sexy stuff. Stay tuned for a novel starring the containers called Fifty Shades of Earl Grey. Available in …