Hasta La Ideas

Devastation notwithstanding, Hurricane Sandy has been occasion for an uncanny respite from the otherwise unstoppable hustle and bustle of the city that Core calls home… and more than one of my friends has confessed to not-so-secretly enjoying the compulsory staycation. (Meanwhile, I’ve been diligently typing away at my kitchen table thanks to mostly-reliable broadband.) In fact, I couldn’t help but think of one friend’s remark, “I feel like I’m becoming a lush”—after three days off, no less—when Tatabi Studio’s Enkaja cocktail mixer turned up in the inbox.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that it looks like an inkwell or shampoo bottle (maybe it has to do with the “200 mL” on the label): the Enkaja is expressly designed to wet your whistle as well as your local mustachioed barkeep, even if you think Angostura refers to a quasi-atheistic belief system. In fact, especially if you don’t know the first thing about mixology: the mix-and-match concept is essentially ‘Drinks for Dummies,’ with pre-measured bottles… something like a Keurig approach to a cocktail shaker—plug-and-play inebriation instead of caffeination.

While the product itself is certainly thoughtfully-designed, the visual identity—another of Tatabi’s many services—is perhaps even more noteworthy.

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Every now and again, we see a concept bike that incorporates a hubless wheel, typically a bicycle, which is invariably met with backlash such as: “the hubless wheel is a hallmark of naïvety.” Yet idealistic designers continue to pursue the void—hell, we’ve even seen a prototype of a bicycle with a hubless wheel—and there’s no denying that it’s a striking form factor. It seems that the judges of the Red Dot Award concur, noting that the hubless wheel “captivates due to its exceptional ergonomics.”

Of course, they’re not referring to a vehicle but a rather more mundane (or, conversely, practical) object: the Rösle Pizza Wheel.

Thanks to the innovative, patent construction with a rounded, free-running blade, the pizza wheel glides quickly through the fresh pizza, without causing the topping[s] to displace. The stable, stainless steel blade is sharpened on both sides and assures exact and effortless work. The pizza wheel can be easily dismantled for cleaning.

The Pizza Wheel turned up in our forums (in a thread about “Good design you love to have,” no less) where member mo-i notes that a pair of Americans—Jessica Moreland & Chris Hawker of Trident Design—came up with the design for the German kitchenware company. Although the hubless blade goes by a different moniker on the Columbus, OH-based consultancy’s website, it didn’t require much digging to learn more about the Pitzo: Moreland and Hawker are duly proud of the recognition they’ve received, and the backstory is available on the microsite:

The Pitzo Pizza Cutter was conceived in 2009 by Jessica Moreland, an industrial designer working at Trident Design, LLC, a product design and invention development lab… While on a scouting trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond with Chris Hawker, president of Trident, it was noted that the pizza cutter was a product that could use some fresh eyes.

The plastic version is available at Walmart, among other retailers

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Established New York food critic and author David Rosengarten continues to surprise and delight foodies with his wit and passion for flavors of all types. He’s just launched his new line of special finds called “Gastronomic Selections,” and the first products are a trio of varietal chile extracts made…

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This clever design called the UID Cookie Box focuses on the idea of reward marketing in the form of a simplistic box that distributes a single cookie when a user (usually a random passerby) posts a designated hashtag on Twitter. Simply check out the display to see what to tweet! I know what you’re thinking – more tweets more cookies, right? Well calm your cookie craving because just one hashtag is allowed per username. Sad face.

Designers: Daniel Jansson, Alexis Morin & Sharon Williams

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(Cookie for a Tweet was originally posted on Yanko Design)

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Milan’s airy new bar and restaurant Pisacco was born out of a collaboration between consulting firm food.different and a group of food- and art-loving friends. As a result, the new eatery is characterized by its close connection to contemporary art, from the name (a deliberate misspelling of Picasso), to…

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