Good design you love to have

A few years ago I did a gig at a company with a cash-cow product and money to burn. The entire company cafeteria had Arne Jacobsen Series 7 chairs, at least a hundred of them. I mean the real ones that cost $600 a piece, not the knock-offs.

My wife bought me one as a birthday present, though here they are sold as Formway “Be” http://be.formway.com/. Fantastic Chair

Yo!: Great choice!

Since years I am debating a 7series Chair with swivel base in black as new
desk chair, here in the office.

Would set us back 1335. €, something like
1.600,-$.

I never buy copies, but I don’t smoke dope anymore, either…

mo-i

I agree with the first post…The Kindle. I wish I could have had that in my industrial design portfolio. I use my Kindle every day, still haven’t upgraded.

mo-i: That is insane. You could build 4 for $1600.

Another favorite of mine, the Emeco Navy chair.

Only problem I have is your butt feels very cold in the morning when you sit on them naked. :laughing:

nice choice… other than the sitting on them naked part. I don’t have any of those, but I’m always amazed at how light they are even though I intellectually understand their materiality.

http://www.trident-design.com/pitzo/pitzo.php

More info on that pizza cutter.

What are those scissors? Look nice.

R

West Elm Heirloom Scissors

love the lug on the left “sciz” that keeps the blade level on the cutting table.

Just picked up one of these Rimowa pieces for my recent trip to Asia. Awesome. Beautifully constructed and full of great, honest details.

One of the very few things that looks better with a nice patina. They had one in the store that was 30 years old with tons of stickers and dents that had been through 2 plane crashes (dunno how that happened!). Even better looking!

R

If BIC ever stopped making these, it would initiate my equivalent of a lifetime supply twinkie run… =)

Cameron: I’m a round stick fan myself. I agree.

How solid are those wheels ?

In my experience no matter how much you spend the wheels are never strong enough to survive some baggage handlers and are always the first thing to go. If they did get smashed do you think they would be replaceable ?

I have to resurrect this thread to talk about a recent purchase that was really unexpected. Many things these days, consumer electronics especially, are so cheaply made that they bring no satisfaction apart from their utility and quite a lot of them barely even satisfy their function. So imagine my surprise when I bought an electric toothbrush from Philips that not only turned out to be well built (so far), but also well designed and came with a bunch of equally high quality accessories:

The first accessory is the glass, which appears to be very thick! I know that glass blowers appreciate thin glass to show off their craftsmanship, but thin glass screams fragile at you and broken glass screams danger, so that affects the way you handle it. This feels as if you can drop it on a tiled bathroom floor and it won’t break.

The second accessory is the stand that goes under the glass. This charges the toothbrush via induction, through the glass. Engineering wise, that’s probably not terribly impressive, but it feels impressive. The way the stand and glass are shaped so that they seamlessly fit into each other is also very nice.

The third accessory is the travel case. This is also made with quality detailing, for example the way they have symmetrically stretched the fabric of the case so that the pattern in the weave actually creates pleasant shapes, even around the corners. It also has slots for an extra brush head, hidden magnets to close it and a mini-USB port for charging on the go, again via induction.

And then there is the toothbrush itself. As with the rest, it feels like a well designed quality item, with for example brushing program indicators which are invisible when the brush is off, but glow white when active. The battery indicator is also invisible unless active, and pulsates in green and orange. The chrome details around the brush head mount and especially the bottom where it receives the charge are also nice, in that they are the only details in another material and they highlight the places where the brush receives external input, if you follow me.

I don’t know, maybe it’s post-decision dissonance, after all I’ve only owned it for a few months, but this feels so far like the best thing I’ve bought in a long, long time. Oh, and it brushes really well too. :slight_smile:

With products like this, I would have loved to work at Philips design. Too bad I read that they’ve sold off all of their consumer stuff except the lighting. :frowning:

EDIT: I actually just noticed that the main toothrush volume transitions from a square at the base to a circle at the top, while the glass transitions from a square at the top to a circle at the base. Perhaps not just for looks either, since it provides a slightly larger area for the toothbrush to stand on and also nice corners in the glass for the brush to lean on. So far, this design just keeps getting better the more I look at it!

I think you mean agree to disagree! I dispise the round-stick. So cheap and flimsy, parts slip off all the time. The Crystal is a quality, solid, pencil-style grip! If your round stick ever kills off the crystal, it will be a 1st-world design tragedy of epic proportions. =)

Just got me a Sonicare DiamondClean too, awesome toothbrush. But I’ve been so busy using it I haven’t had time to check out the accessories yet. The glass is bigger than I thought.