toy box

LaptopSticks in action!!!

Deb asked us if we have pictures of LaptopSticks in action!! So here they are! (It is little difficult to see LaptopSticks when it is used since it is covered by the laptop.) It accommodates 12', 15' and 17'.

LaptopSticks

Our friend, Daisuke Yamaguchi designed a very cool LaptopSticks ($10/stick). This small device helps the bottom of your laptop to be tilted upward to reduce the strain on your neck and also keeps your laptop cooler with air space underneath it. it's compact enough to carry around in a laptop bag. It is made out of bamboo plywood and every inch of the material is used. (Sleeve to keep the LaptopSticks together when it is carried is made out of the negative space of the stick itself...etc)

He is making more for holiday seasons and currently taking pre-orders. (laptopsticks@gmail.com)

Pock-it

Clever design by Pu Tai. Pock-it!
This could be life-saving in our busy schedule...

Hug Responsibly

This is just cute. The tip to become a "furniture hugger" by Steelcase. On their website you can receive your copy of "Hug Responsibly," a hugger's guide to friendly furniture. It's their effort to help consumers learn why materials chemistry, life cycle assessment, recycling and reuse are key to huggability as a part of Greenbuild 2007.

Urban Shopping Adventurers

Interested in exploring LA Downtown Fashion district? Urban shopping adventurers offers several different holiday shopping tours for holiday seasons from gift wrapping to designers' sample sales. Fun fun!

Supermarket

Another very cool place to shop designer items is Supermarket.

Their website is really easy and fun to navigate. You can shop by categories or by designers. Much like etsy.com but more with design flavor.

One Laptop Per Child

Sometimes interesting items come to our way. This time was $100 laptop! One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is an nonprofit organization which provides children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. Terry Ducay who is working on a related project to OLPC lend it to us for the weekend. (Thank you Terri)

We played around with it but it was really difficult to open and couldn't get too far with the program. Little disappointed... We realized that our mental map of how laptop should work is so fixated to how it is today.

Then we let Narumi, 12 year old, totally computer savvy, digital native, to try it out. Instantly she figured out how to open the laptop, turned it on, maneuver most of the programs, swivel the screen to turn it into e-book reader, and get on the internet browser to search her name... She also absolutely LOVED the appearance of the laptop.

What does this say? It's easy for us to judge a project like this by thinking, "because it does not work on our mental map, it won't work for their target users." Let's not forget children who are going to receive this laptop on the other side of the world will have much more flexible and curious minds just like Narumi in this example and one way or another they will figure out what they can do with this innovative technology and product.

ReadyMade: Store

Another cool store to check out. ReadyMade store. You can order one year subscription gift and other cool DIY items unique to ReadyMade magazine.

Our favorite item there?
RE-SIGN
Reclaimed Billboard Material. One 4' x 4' piece of all-weather vinyl. Comes with project ideas and instructions. Patterns will vary. $20

Appliance = beautiful piece of art

Have you seen an washer this beautiful before? It is not only great looking but contains innovation in interface design with embedded LCD screen on top of the lid... Flexible Distance is designed by Simona Iuculano developed for Ye Xiao Dong as winners of the “Lavatrice Cinese Made In Milan” competition.

via: Yanko Design

Design Public

We have a couple design shops that we want to introduce you during this weekend just in case you're waiting for the right moment to get started with Christmas shopping (like us...)
First one is Design Public.

Their selection is not the largest but have wide variety of items for home, office and places in between. It kind of gives you the feel of browsing through the Target website with Design on it.