The Rescue Tool by Victorinox recently won the Knife of the Year Award at IWA 2007. The rescue tool sports a ton of utility in a compact and easy to use tool. The integrated glass breaker and disc saw are the most interesting parts of the kit. The disc saw can actually saw through auto safety glass, check the video of it at work.

Stay tuned Monday for our favorite picks from BKLYN DESIGNS. I browsed the exhibits earlier today, and there were some familiar faces and a lot of new ones. 2007 is the five year anniversary of BKLYN DESIGNS with a great cross-section of Brooklyn designers exhibiting.

Check out this sexy hammer (if there is such a thing)…It’s sleek and looks like a hammer with a purpose. I like the niche for a nail/screw to help you make that initial punch into the wall.

Via Acquire.

Atypyk is a Parisian design studio made up of Ivan Duval and Jean Sebastien Ides. The Snapshot Mirror, the Souvenir Camera (27 pre-exposed images of Paris so that you can pretend to have been to all the touristy spots) the Good Mood pad and the Do Re Me Glass – all very clever products from Atypyk.

I love backpacks. There are a million types out there and they all have their own particular uses. I have 6 backpacks/shoulder bags that I use for different things. But what it typically comes down to is weight. Take these two packs for example. The Arc’Teryx Arro 22 (left) is one of my favorites, except that the pack weight by itself is already 1110 grams and has a volume of 1,350 cubic inches. Meanwhile, the Patagonia Lightweight Travel Pack weighs in at 284 grams and has a volume of 1,200 cubic inches. So picking the pack depends on what your outing at hand is and how much rough and tumble you plan on getting into. The Arro feels completely Jack Bauer bomb-proof and the Patagonia pack could probably be flown as a kite. But to carry around 5 times the weight in the pack alone is a big compromise. I say go lighter, your shoulders, neck and feet will thank you.

The Lamp Lamp by Hironao Tsuboi is a curious little oddity. I like that it turns the vernacular of the lightbulb into something that makes you think twice about how it engages the light fixture. Available at Unica Home

The Pepin Press makes a number of great resource books for graphic designers. We just picked up a copy of Structural Package Designs (left) for a project we are working on. And the Special Packaging Designs (right) book is a great companion book to the package design set. They both come with cds with .eps files of each container design.

The Key Bottle Opener from Suck UK is a nice little piece of hardware for your cluttered life. A skeleton key…for beer.

Discovered these great product designers, Vitamin, A Life Less Ordinary via 100% Design. Check out their line of garden gnomes, some of which double as lights or speakers.