Nice “Dish Up” dinnerware series from Thai design house Propaganda. A smart take on the food tray…Also, because of the flat edge, these plates can easily be stored vertically.

Via bltd.

The Honeycomb Tumbler, designed by Carl Rotter in 1940, is mouth-blown and then hand-turned to grind the dimples into the glass to create the final honeycomb form. The optical effect of peering through the glass is mesmerizing and the time invested to hand-craft each glass makes these tumblers more than a joy to hold.

New specialized ceramics are super-light, super-durable, and pretty expensive. Above are two examples of ceramics replacing other materials in product design (metal in this case). On the left is the Nixon Ceramic Player, Nixon’s first ceramic watch. Ceramic replaces steel watch band and case and reduces the weight of the watch considerably.

On the right is one of the Kyocera Ceramic Cutlery Series. The ceramic blade replaces the traditional steel blade. Ceramic blades remain sharp for much longer than steel and are more resistant to damages to the blade edge.

Alessi is a classic Italian design studio that makes…everything. The Alessandro Mendini Corkscrew is a recent re-issue of one of their classic corkscrew designs. I like the little German one. The Alessi designers have always combined a very playful aesthetic with the very rigorous industrial design, which I appreciate very much.

Sean and I wandered into Future Perfect this weekend and discovered the awesome Japanese collective D-BROS. I love how playful their work is.

Also very cool are these plastic bag vases. It’s hard to tell from the photos, but these vases are just heavy duty plastic bags that you fill with water, insert flower, and voila!: instant vase!

Sigg is a Swiss company that makes the swiss version of the ubiquitous American Nalgene water bottle. The Swiss do it a little bit better. The aluminum bottles have some sort of crazy inner coating that resists fruit acids and booze. And they’re a little bit lighter than plastic. They make all types of bottles, thermoses, kids versions, even old school looking ones with aluminum cups built into them.

Above there are two examples of beautiful design and similar functions in low and high-tech fabrication techniques. On the left is one of Noa Bembibre’s hand-carved glass knives. On the right, Spyderco’s Poliwog pocketknife. Noa’s represents a modern version of the first cutting implements ever created, the hand-formed flint knife. On the right, the Spyderco Poliwog represents the massive leap in design and fabrication that computer technology has afforded the human creative mind. Both achieve the simplest of tasks, cutting. Yet both do it with incredible thought and attention to detail. Unfortunately, only one is small enough to fit comfortably into a pocket.