Hasta La Ideas

Following the success of the Ostrich Pillow, a travel cushion that fits over the head for sleeping anywhere, Studio Banana Things has launched a smaller version that slides onto the user’s arm or hand (+ slideshow).

Ostrich Pillow Mini, which has a grey exterior and a lining in a choice of four colours, was developed in response to user feedback on the original Ostrich Pillow.

The mitt slips onto the arm to support the head in different temporary resting positions.

“Some of our customers had been asking for a smaller product to fit comfortably into a bag or pocket,” Shadi Ganjavian-Connor of Studio Banana Things, previously known as Kawamura-Ganjavian, told Dezeen.

“Also we have been observing people’s sleep postures and thought wouldn’t it be great to enable more napping positions through engaging our hands and arms. Last but not least we wanted a really good pillow fight and thought this product would fit the bill!”

The cushioned pads are filled with silicone-covered micro-polystyrene balls to mould the pillow to the shape of the user’s head.

The Ostrich Pillow Mini is currently raising funds on Kickstarter and reached 105 per cent of its $15,000 (£10,000) target within just 48 hours.

The first Ostrich Pillow was designed to create the perfect conditions for a power nap at a desk, at the airport or in the library, and was launched on the crowdfunding website in 2012. The product raised $195,094 (£120,000) against a $70,000 (£43,000) goal.

A smaller version for children was introduced a year later, with a compact design that only wraps around the eyes and ears following shortly after. Both were also successfully funded on Kickstarter.

“We have truly been overwhelmed by the reception – we did not expect it at all,” said the studio. “Our fans stretch across the globe and many of them have supported all four of our Kickstarter projects.”

The post Ostrich Pillow Mini by Studio Banana Things
enables napping on the go appeared first on Dezeen.

Six sculptures conçues par l’artiste Joe O’Connell ont été disposées entre la bibliothèque principale et le centre artistique de la ville de Palo Alto, en Californie. Fabriquées en acier inoxydable, ces photophores géants sont constitués de phrases multilingues retranscrites dans l’acier découpé, puis soudées entre elles. Ces magnifiques sculptures s’éclairent avec des LED et possèdent des composants électroniques sensibles.

The Default Tap forces us to stick with good habits and conserve water whenever we can. As a user of the tap, you can set the capacity for simple hand washes to advance settings of an elaborate cleanup. The design keeps us in check and encourages us to use our resources thoughtfully.

Designers: Ying Jiang, Xin-Xin Sun & Wen-Kui Jin

–
Yanko Design
Timeless Designs – Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Shop CKIE – We are more than just concepts. See what’s hot at the CKIE store by Yanko Design!
(Limited Liquids was originally posted on Yanko Design)

Related posts:

1. One Liter Limited
2. Valentines Giveaway: Limited Edition The Herbas + The Freckle CNY Bags
3. Friday Giveaway: Limited Edition TOKYObay DIY Watch Kit

Here at Core77, we get our fair share of business books, in part because to design anything on an industrial level, you need to have business in mind. Perhaps you need to get financing to invest in your first injection molding press plates, to the tune of $250k, and it might be nice to have a little hand holding, someone to tell you the press is good for 500k cycles and at your margin, making $3.00/part on an 8% loan gets you a solid NPV if you can sell 50k widgets a year. And yet, if you stroll into the business aisle of a typical bookstore, you see the face of Jack Welsh telling you Elephants can Dance, and providing his experiences in making an agile multi-billion dollar company, so you might just be entitled to wondering how big the market is for billionaires looking for insight into how to improve their NASDAQ-listed stock, because it certainly doesn’t help you. Likewise with the success of Malcolm Gladwell’s particular brand of chapter by chapter insight using the case study method by way of aphoristic lessons about obscure ketchup companies.

Given the continual flow of newly minted industrial designers hoping to make a go at their own business with the tools to make products, rather than companies, we’ve certainly kept our eyes open for new books promising to teach designers how to become business people rather than craftsmen. The latest manifestation of such is The Monocle Guide to Good Business (Gestalten 2014), which is about as far afield as one can go from Malcolm Gladwell while retaining the structure of printed paper laced between two canvas covers. Rather than focus on tycoons and boardrooms, their case studies (beautifully laid out photo spreads with accompanying text) focus principally on small businesses ranging from goat farms to more predictably design-centric shops like type foundries and high street tailors. Each page of the guide has been carefully aligned with the grid and thoughtfully designed, but we confess that at the end of it, we found ourselves far more knowledgeable with how to make an already successful business prettier than understanding how to make successful company in the first place.

(more…)

If you share a home or office with others, you’re going to need to consider their needs when setting up your organization systems. The following are some things to consider when putting these systems in place.

File Names

I knew a couple where the wife set up the files, and the husband couldn’t find the insurance policy when he wanted it. His wife had filed it under the name of the insurance company, and he never thought to look there. (He may not have even remembered which company they bought the insurance from.)

Insurance files are a good example of how varied a naming system could be. Would a car insurance policy go under “Insurance — Car” (along with “Insurance — House” and “Insurance — Medical”)? Or would it go under “Car — Insurance” (along with “Car — Purchase” and “Car — Maintenance”)? And would you use the word “car” or “auto” or something else, such as the make of the car, or the car’s name (for those who give their cars names)?

There’s no one right answer, but file names need to work for everyone who might be adding to the files or retrieving items from them. Discuss and agree upon the naming convention so no one wastes time.

Labels

Once you’ve decided what goes where — in the kitchen cabinets, the garage, the linen closet, the office storage cabinets, the toy area, etc. — it helps to label those spaces to ensure that everyone putting things away remembers where they go. If young children are involved, those labels might include pictures. If you are fortunate enough to have housekeeping help, and your helpers speak a different primary language than you do, you may want bilingual labels.

Reachability

If you want children to hang up their clothes, make sure there are hooks or hangers they can reach. A double hang rod can ensure there’s at least one set of clothes closet hangers that kids can reach.

Similarly, a tall adult setting up an organizing system will need to consider the needs of any shorter adults using that system. This might include placing frequently used items where everyone can easily reach them and ensuring there’s a step stool handy for reaching the highest cabinets or shelves.

And if some household members have problems reaching things in low cabinets, installing pull-out shelves might be worthwhile.

Organizing style

There are many different ways to be organized, and two people sharing a home or office may not share organizing styles. Just one example: One person may prefer everything to be put away behind closed doors, while another prefers things to be out and visible.

One way to handle these differences is to let each person have some non-public space to organize according to individual preferences (within certain limits for health and safety), while coming to some compromises on how public areas will be handled. If you prefer to fold your socks and put them away using little drawer dividers, while your spouse or partner prefers to just toss socks into the drawer, there’s no need for either of you to convert the other to your system. Reserve your energy for figuring out a way to organize the kitchen and living room to suit you both.

Post written by Jeri Dansky

Let Unclutterer help you get your home or office organized. Subscribe to our helpful product shipments from Quarterly today.