The Leica M8.2 Special Edition “Safari” looks pretty slick. I have never had the privilege to own a Leica, but someday I hope to join the club. They’re just so well-designed for what they do: durable, compact, unassuming. The green fatigue color is the only thing that really sets it apart from the standard M8.2. I wonder about why a 28mm lens would be for the wild safari types, you would have to get pretty close to the animals, wouldn’t you?

I came across the Lippi Selk Bag in an issue of Backpacker this past weekend. Instead of a sleeping bag, you would use one of these insulated suits to sleep in to allow more freedom in sleeping positions. The temperature ratings are for moderate to cool weather. It would be fun to wear one of these for a snowball fight, you’d feel like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Most of us do not have to transport our tools to work the same way that Henry Studley did. His profession of piano maker made it necessary to be able to work on pianos outside of his workshop, hence the tool chest above. More info from Wikipedia and The Smithsonian Institution.

If you had to build a chest for your work’s tools, what would it look like?

via Oobject

The iRiver MPlayer Eyes from is a novel take on a music player. The 10 LEDs on the face communicate what the player is doing – ff, rew, scan, volume, etc. While it has the Disney logo, I think they should get KAWS to do a version too.

Nendo is fast becoming one of my favorite designers. I just posted about their Socket-deer last week, and saw their Aromamora on Designboom today – so gorgeous! Aromamora is a line of essential oils that are blended specially for each season by aromatherapist Ohashi Maki. Their design combines the functions of a bottle cap and a diffuser into one (and I love the oversized, cauldron-like bottle cap). Small batch manufacturing also allows us to change the design with the seasons too.

MUJI recently completed their Award 03 competition. This year’s theme was ‘Found MUJI’: modern design cues can be learned from traditional craft and traditional uses. The two designs shown both garnered bronze prizes, but I think they are more worthy than that. Above is ‘a precise stapler’ by Joonhyun Kim of South Korea and below is ‘grandpa’s nail hook’ by Masashi Watanabe. Learn more about the two entries above and see the rest of the award winners here.

The 205 Pocket knife and x-23 Spider from Stelton caught my eye today. The pocket knife, by Designit, combines keychain with a mini utility blade in a pocket-friendly shape, eliminating the need for another thing jingling around in your pockets. The spider, designed by Jakob & Karsten Gudiksen, is a screw (wall) or magnet (refrigerator) applied tool that uses the springy arms to friction-hold photos to your home’s surfaces.

The MBS-100 bluetooth speaker from Sony Ericsson look likes it should be hurling towards Earth to either kill the dinosaurs or ferrying our new Transformer overlords to crash land in the desert. Even if the audio is so-so, it would make a nice paperweight.

Keeseh Studio announced the winners of their Make Some Green Competition.

The winning entry was Ecovative Design’s “Negative Volume” packaging. “A direct replacement for EPS packaging materials, Negative Volume is an entirely compostable composite. Because it’s produced using agricultural byproducts, Negative Volume not only makes use of an existing, sustainable resource stream – once it has delivered your new TV or computer to you safely, you can turn Negative Volume back around and put it to work as an organic fertilizer for your garden. Once you dispose of this packaging material, it will begin to break down immediately, enriching the soil around it.”

Runners up:
Contexture Design’s Bentwood Coffee Cuffs, made of reclaimed architectural veneer off cuts.
Sarah Turner’s Bottle Lights, made from reused plastic drink bottles.
David Gardener’s Packaging Lamp, made from paper pulp and designed to eliminate unnecessary packaging.

MINIWIZ was started in order to promote green + wireless lifestyle. Their flagship products are the HYmini and miniSOLAR above. Both generate power for portable devices by converting the readily available natural resources of wind and sun into electricity. One of the founders, Arthur Huang, is an old friend from school and I am amazed at the company he has built around a very noble and important mission.