Hasta La Ideas

Brought to you by MAKO Design + Invent, North America’s leading design firm for taking your product idea from a sketch on a napkin to store shelves. Download Mako’s Invention Guide for free here.

Navigating the world of crowdfunding can be overwhelming, to put it lightly. Which projects are worth backing? Where’s the filter to weed out the hundreds of useless smart devices? To make the process less frustrating, we scour the various online crowdfunding platforms to put together a weekly roundup of our favorite campaigns for your viewing (and spending!) pleasure. Go ahead, free your disposable income:

Meizu Zero is a new  phone that boasts a ceramic unibody design, high-speed wireless data transmission and wireless charging—only wireless charging, that is. The Meizu Zero doesn’t have any charging ports, which helps make the design a little more waterproof and a little more hassle-free. 

Si Tray Collection by Betuel Benitez is a collection of 100 thoughtfully designed 3D printed silicone trays as part of Kickstarter’s make100 initiative. Simply select a general style of tray and color, and Benitez will then randomly select a tray. Each tray is designed differently, so backers are in for a colorful treat.

HomeHawk FLOOR is a floor lamp designed by Panasonic that literally watches over your home like a hawk via camera, voice assistant and light.

Twelve Indoor Growing System by Miracle-Gro is an indoor garden that actually looks presentable in the kitchen or home. Grow veggies and herbs year-round without overly compromising your interior design skills.

Do you need help designing, developing, patenting, manufacturing, and/or selling YOUR product idea? MAKO Design + Invent is a one-stop-shop specifically for inventors / startups / small businesses. Click HERE for a free confidential product consultation.

Smarter Every Day..(Read…)

Tell me if this scenario feels familiar. You’re alone, you’ve got your hands occupied, and you need to film something on your smartphone. You prop your phone against something on your table or counter, perhaps a tin of coffee, or any stationary object you find around you. You switch on the camera, and as soon as you compose your shot, you tap the screen to hit record and your phone shakes. It’s inelegant, and is what Indians call jugaad, or a lifehack. Engineer and ex-rocket scientist Jeremiah McCoy found himself in a similar scenario and realized he wasn’t the only one… and rather than relying on a worthless lifehack, he developed a more concrete, appropriate solution to the problem.

Essentially a tripod for your phone, the Ultimate Kickstand is a small piece of plastic, the size of a thumb drive, and small enough to fit on your keychain (it even comes with its own carabiner). Fold it out, and it becomes a phone-gripping tripod that you can place anywhere, and even at any angle. It works universally, gripping any phone by the sides (you can only use it in landscape, unfortunately), and rests on two legs and a base. A worthy replacement for a coffee-tin, a couch cushion, or any cheap prop, the Ultimate Kickstand can be used to compose great shots of products, people handsfree (no more selfie-stick either!) The Ultimate Kickstand is currently 3D printed out of PLA plastic, but I don’t see why we can’t have ourselves a nice machined Aluminum one somewhere in the future. Did I also mention that it’s small enough to be carried with you everywhere on your keychain?

Designer: Jeremiah McCoy

Reader Juliana submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

How do you stay on top of your chores if both members of the household work demanding jobs all day? There’s no way we can afford a housekeeper and we are both exhausted at the end of the day. By the weekend, things have piled up to an overwhelming level and I feel like it’s too much to handle. Help!

Oh, Juliana, I know exactly how you’re feeling, and I’m sure a number of our readers do, too. After a long day of work the last thing you want to do are chores, and when the weekend arrives you want to do something more remarkable than clean. There have been many times when I have wished for a housekeeper.

• My first piece of advice is to set aside one weekend to simply catch up with all of the stuff around your house. In the days leading up to this weekend, tell everyone that you’re going out of town, stock up on groceries, and clear your entire schedule. Then, wake up early on Saturday morning and get down to business. Clean your place from top-to-bottom, inside-and-out, and do all of the big stuff that just has to get done. On Sunday evening, celebrate your efforts by going out to a dinner where someone else is responsible for doing the dishes.
• Once you have this clean slate, then you can get started on a daily maintenance routine that takes little effort and leaves your weekends free for your remarkable life.
• Your routine first needs to include a landing strip. You need an area where you can come in after a long day at work and immediately process items. Put a trash can and recycle bin/paper shredder in this space so that mail and paperwork are immediately handled (especially since you don’t want to sacrifice weekend time doing this). Have hooks for coats and hats, and designated spaces for your keys, bags, etc. Put all of your charging equipment for your cell phone in this space, and plug in your phone the minute you walk in the door. The landing strip provides a space for your things, and also makes it a breeze to leave your house in the morning for work.
• Next up, commit to doing exactly 30 minutes of cleanup a night. You may do best if you do this 30 minutes right when you get home, or it may work for you right after dinner. Yes, you’re exhausted, but if you remind yourself that 30 minutes now will save you two whole weekend days, it’s pretty easy to keep moving. I have a “cleaning” mix on my iPod that is 30 minutes of fast tempo songs. I play it while I clean to motivate me.
• Designate specific rooms for specific days, such as Mondays = Kitchen, Tuesdays = Bathrooms, Wednesdays = Bedroom, Thursdays = Living Room, and Fridays = Living/Family Room. Do a general 10 minute pick up around the house, but then spend 20 minutes really focusing on just one room. With both of you working together, you’ll be surprised by how much you accomplish. You’ll also reap the benefit of having your weekends free of chores.
• If you watch television as a way to relax, invest in a DVR. You can do the cleaning while a favorite show is recording, and then start it half-way into the program and watch the show without commercials.
• Finally, here are more time-saving tips and suggestions for establishing routines. And, remember to get ready for bed half-an-hour or an hour before you plan to go to sleep. Your clothes are more likely to hit the hamper, and shoes/belts/jackets are more likely to get put away properly.

Thank you, Juliana, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. I hope we helped a little to solve your problem.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

This post has been updated since its original publication in 2009.

Post written by Erin Doland

Swedish furniture brand Hem has opened its first permanent US showroom in Los Angeles, featuring a courtyard decorated with colourful graphics that resemble confetti.

Hem opened the showroom in Downtown LA in collaboration with US flooring company Madera. The space is Hem’s second permanent showroom, after a location Stockholm, and follows a series of pop-ups around the world.

At the West Coast hub, Hem enlisted San Francisco­-based designer Clark Thenhaus to create an installation for the outdoor patio.

Called Confetti Courtyard, it comprises square, squiggle, triangular and circular shapes typical of the paper confetti thrown at special occasions, but supersized.

Painted in hues of yellow, blue, pink and green, the graphics pop against the cracked grey flooring and weathered white-painted walls to create a bright backdrop for programmed events.

Thenhaus, who runs Endemic Architecture, also arranged the shapes to mark out particular areas during these activities.

“Distributed throughout the courtyard as though they are oversized pieces of confetti, they create a loose organisation with discrete spaces that cues visitors to move and interact in particular, nuanced ways,” said a project description.

“The super­sized confetti graphics wrap up the walls and fold down onto the floors, implying rooms within the courtyard that sponsor social interactions, encourage active mingling, accommodate varied methods of display for future programming, and frame the courtyard as an immersive, colourful environment.”

Located at 810 Mateo Street, the Hem x Madera showroom is marked on the outside by pink-painted brick walls.

Inside, it features white-painted walls, wooden flooring and exposed wooden ceilings. This creates a setting for Hem’s range of furniture, accessories and lighting – all made in collaboration with designers.

Details like blue-painted circles on the walls nod to the exterior installation.

Among the pieces on show are the splattered metal stools by Max Lamb, the Kumo Modular Sofa by Anderssen & Voll – which won Furniture Design of the Year at the 2018 Dezeen Awards – and Luca Nichetto‘s modular Alphabet pendant lamp.

Founded in Stockholm in 2014, Hem usually opens temporary retail spaces in cities around the world to bolster its online operations.

It has recently set sights on the US with pop-ups in New York and Los Angeles, before founder Petrus Palmer expressed ambitions to make a permanent West Coast destination.

“We’ve had our sights set on opening a physical retail space in Los Angeles for some time, as we knew from our online sales that LA was a key market for us, so it was just a matter of finding the right venue,” said Palmer at the time.

Other Scandinavian brands expanding into the US market including Danish companies Reform, which also partnered with company Madera to open up showroom for its hacked IKEA kitchens in New York, and Hay, which recently opened its first US store in Portland and an e-commerce platform dedicated to the region.

Photography is by Lauren Moore, unless stated otherwise. Featured image is by David Salpeter.

The post Hem opens LA showroom with “super­sized confetti” installation appeared first on Dezeen.