Click n Cook: Modular Cooking Utensils

Quirky's Click n Cook system of cooking utensils, invented by Fred Ende, it consists of five commonly used utensils and just one handle, which snaps into each like a razor handle does with disposable blades.

Here's the video of its design and development process:

Making Good Use of Tree Branches as Household Hooks

Etsy seller Gabriel Rutledge makes hers out of green maple twigs mounted to a distressed wooden board.

John Robohm's Live Wire Farm is a Vermont-based outfit that manufactures goods from local hardwoods, and judging by all of the SOLD stamps on their website, does a brisk business in hooks.

Homemaker Graca Paz cobbled up a set from local materials and documented it on her blog dedicated to living in the Portugese countryside.

Another Etsy seller, Jack Pollner, takes advantage of New Hampshire's snowfalls to harvest his raw materials. After heavy snow fills the area around his house with downed branches, Pollner collects them, cuts them to size and assembles them into hook racks.

Corner Ladder

Corner Ladder by Company and Company, the Barcelona-based design quartet comprised of Allan Legaspi, Neus Company, Juan Pablo Ospina and Jorge Freyre.

Genie: Motion Control Time Lapse Device

Industrial designer Chris Thomson and cinematographer Ben Ryan, under their company named Syrp, have created a simple, portable, and clever device to help shooters regulate motion control. Called the Genie, it doesn't take up much more space than the SLR body it's meant to be attached to, and it allows the user to program in both rotating and panning features.

Most impressive hackability function of the device; it can propel itself along by a provided rope, the camera can go anywhere you're willing to string that rope, either using an optional track or something you whip up yourself, like a few pieces of wood nailed together or even a skateboard.

Watch their amusing video below:

Respond Mechanical Coat Rack

Berlin-based designer Nicole Schindelholz has managed to weave kinetic interest into what's ordinarily a rather staid object: The coat rack. What could be mistaken for gears are actually blocks of wood, precision-cut into blocks or trapezoids and glued to either side of a flexible strip, allowing the assembly to bend in a snake-like way.

While the motion of the Respond Mechanical Coat Rack does not provide a functional benefit, that's not what it's about—Schindelholz, a former Swiss schoolteacher turned Eindhoven grad, had a different motive:

Today, more and more products are simple on the outside and complicated on the inside. people cannot understand the products anymore and they lose the control over them. concerning this development, the desire of understanding a product while using it decreases. with this project, I have taken the opposite tack, to ensure that people can see how a product works, so that they can enjoy understanding how technology works. it is my aim to set people thinking, so that they really perceive the world with the help of their eyes and their hands.

"respond" is an interactive coat rack, which moves when a coat is hung on it. it is an ingenious weight system, using precision carpentry and the element of surprise. after all, surprise arouses curiosity, and curiosity can lead you to the pleasure of understanding.

Video of its look in motion:

Umbra Clock: Modern-day Indoor LED Sundial

Roshan Hakkim made two observations from the past, one from his own and one from human history's. The first was that "As kids we were always amazed by the change in our shadow lengths according to the sun position," he writes. The second was that ancient humans used the position of the sun and shadows to create sundials, the first time-telling devices.

Inspired by these things, Hakkim came up with the Umbra clock.

The [Umbra] clock works on the principle of shadow and lights.... By using TWO LIGHT sources which creates TWO SHADOWS, time can be communicated by altering the shadow length.

UMBRA uses 2 LED strips.

1. Inner Strip - 24 LEDs. Projects minute hand shadow as it is the nearest, hence a longer shadow.

2. Outer Strip - 12 LEDs. Projects hour hand shadow as it is further compared to the inner strip, hence shorter.

UMBRA visually defies the language of a normal clock. Its not a flat block which fits onto the wall. It has a volume and a poetic approach to it. It could be placed vertically or horizontally as it has a layer of gecko tape behind.

3style Table

Using metal pegs, keyhole-slotted metal plates and a well-thought-out design, David Koch's "3style Table" lives up to its name with a little elbow grease and no tools.

Koch explains the three components of the table:

Birch Stress Skin Panel

The two top pieces are made by gluing two plywood skins ontoa frame. This creats a very light and stiff surface. A hard maple edge is glued around the top to prevent dents. Next the top is primed and painted using durable lacquer.

Hardware

This unique systeme allows elements to be quickly locked together to create a joint that is rigid and strong. A pin is slid into a keyhole-shaped slot and held in place by a ball spring. The square plates are waterjet cut from 1/8" stainless steel and hand polished. The pins are turned on a 1940s Southbend lathe in our workshop.

Native Hardwoods

The base of the table is made from white ash, a hardwood native to the easter US. This wood is strong and lightweight, it is used for baseball bats. We can make tables using other species as well.

Aperion: ARIS

A wireless digital speaker unit of PDX'ers Aperion Audio, ARIS was "fully designed, engineered and tuned in Portland" over the course of three weeks with the pithy mission of "Hi-Fi over "Wi-Fi."

The Aperion ARIS gives you Hi-Fi via Wi-Fi for Windows, so you can enjoy your favorite tracks instantly. So what if your music library achieves its vastness through files scattered on every desktop, laptop, notebook, tablet and smartphone in your world? As long as the device connects to your network, you're covered... Set up ARIS on your network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet in minutes, then use Windows built-in Play To feature to pick and play your music to the ARIS speaker located wherever you want to listen...

The Challenge: How can a brand rooted in a traditional hi-fi audio shift their focus to a younger, more tech-savvy design-centric consumer? How can product design tell this story?

The Opportunity: By identifying an opportunity to speak to a new consumer, this design establishes a lifestyle product icon for a new audio platform; Wi-Fi enabled Hi-Fi. It shifts the focus from a traditional audiophile listener to instead reach a more design-savvy, technologically progressive consumer.

The Design: An iconic timeless design. Brushed anodized aluminum frame, bent powder-coated steel wire base, injection molded elastomer controls, injection molded ABS housing, carbon weave drivers, removable magnetic nylon mesh grill cover.

Technology: Proprietary technology enables customizable Wi-Fi connectivity. Pair your music library to stream audio via AirPlay, Play-2, or BlueTooth.

Features: What you'll hear is true Hi-Fi sound. ARIS hosts four driven speakers and two passive radiators for enhanced bass response—plus three modes of operation that let you tailor your listening experience. A full 100 Watts RMS total power guarantee the audiophile-grade speakers in ARIS come in LOUD and clear. And thanks to the ARIS speaker system's unique Wireless Card, you can upgrade when networking technology changes without having to rethink your sound system.

ARIS is very easy to set up. Simply plug it in and select any music on your PC or Smart Phone and send it to the ARIS wireless speaker location.

Here's full list of its features.

Plicate Watch

"Plicate" wristwatch by Benjamin Hubert, ultraminimal contemporary product designer.

The watch is characterized by a series of 30 radial pleats—inspired by paper fans—that impart a three-dimensional texture to its face. The strap echoes the implicit tactility of the dial with a series of ridges on its underside "to allow the flow of air between the strap and the user to prevent the build up of sweat," a common issue for polyurethane watch bands.

The design is a study into a new typology of wrist watch and the challenge of convention is also described through its strap closure. The traditional buckle fixing is replaced with an asymmetrical 'clasp' fixing found more commonly in festival wrist bands. This not only allows for a tactile experience when on the users wrist but commands a distinctive silhouette when displayed in store, differentiating it from the crowded timepiece market.

Hubert has doubled the length of the second hand, such that it spans the entire diameter of the watch (as opposed to the radius), emphasizing the fact that it is largely a decorative element.

Cycle Hangers

The set of three includes parts taken from the wheel, frame and handlebar consequently being the names for each of the three products. Each of them are finished with quality wood and use minimal materials. The hooks are created from spokes taken from the wheels and most parts are held together purely by the tight fit as they slot into each other.

As elegant as they are, the shapes seem just a bit unconventional, each a slightly exaggerated version of existing hanger archetypes. For example, the top section of the inverted handlebars seems just a bit too wide for a standard shirt collar.

HemLoft Treehouse

Joel Allen was a Canada-based software developer who bottomed out financially after his company went broke in the '00s. He taught himself carpentry, and soon set his sights on building a killer treehouse. The rudiments of a design were provided by architecture student friends, and Allen subsequently set about making his dream a reality.

The story is insane on so many levels. First of all, the treehouse is illegally sited on "Crown land," or what's known as State land in the United States' government-protected forests. Secondly, Allen had to hand-carry all of the materials out to the site (and carry the construction waste back out to fulfill his goal of keeping the site as pristine as possible). Thirdly, when his construction was interrupted by helicopter traffic from the nearby Olympics, he had to partially dismantle the structure and camoflauge it to avoid detection. Fourthly, building something structurally sound—let alone level—on a tree clinging to a sharply-sloped mountainside is an engineering feat you'd expect to farm out to a firm specializing in such. Allen pulled it off largely by himself and later, with the help of a girlfriend.

Allen's complete story of the HemLoft, as it's known, is epic and far too long to encapsulate here. But if you can carve the time out of your day it's a highly worthwhile multi-part read, with photos of the construction process.

Here's a video showing what the house (and a surprisingly earnest, for a lawbreaker, Allen) looks like:

Sensu Stylus

The Sensu stylus features a synthetic brush hair tip on one end and an eraser-like rubber nib on the other.

On-screen at least, the brush looks as if it will provide that much-craved-for tactility, and the protective cap can be used to lengthen the otherwise pocket-sized device, providing both bristle protection and proper ergonomics.

The Sensu will be available for sale in May for $34.95.

Check out a longer video of a single painting.