Pull a cord and music comes from the wall
MUJI’s wall-mounted CD player starts with a gesture familiar from an extractor fan. A simple pull transfers an everyday movement to listening to music.
Design
A red typewriter that you want to carry around instead of a briefcase
Olivetti Valentine gave office equipment a vivid new appearance. Its ambition to be an affordable portable machine took a different course from its later status as a design icon.
Reading letters with your fingertips and building LEGO together
LEGO Braille Bricks put tactile braille and printed characters on the same piece, allowing people who read by sight and touch to build and play together.
Three years to design one soy sauce bottle
Kikkoman’s red-capped dispenser gives air and soy sauce separate paths. Nearly 100 prototypes helped refine the simple act of pouring at the table.
This chair contains clothes that someone used to wear.
Kvadrat Really turns discarded textiles into rigid boards. A chair made from customers’ returned clothing shows how fibers can take on a new role inside a shop.
Finding room for saxophone-like resonance in a small instrument
Yamaha Venova combines a branched tube with a winding body. The design brings a saxophone-like resonance into a compact instrument while keeping the tone holes within reach.
Toio turns a car headlamp into a living-room light
Designed by the Castiglioni brothers in 1962, Toio combines a car headlamp with fishing-rod line guides. Its exposed cable and transformer each have a practical role.
Jacket made from mushroom mycelium hangs in art museum
NGV’s “Plant Life” brings together a mycelium protective-jacket prototype and furniture made with plant-based adhesives. It examines surfaces, joints, and what happens when objects reach the end of their use.
886 jewelry gives gold from discarded circuit boards another life
The Royal Mint makes jewelry from gold recovered from electronic waste, tracing a path from office phones to earrings.
Dyson PencilVac puts the motor inside the handle
A motor inside a slim handle and conical brush bars: Dyson PencilVac reworks the shape of a vacuum for moving among furniture.
From a week of daily life to the climate: MoMA explores the shape of data
Hand-drawn postcards and temperature stripes share a gallery. Two works offer a way into MoMA’s exhibition of information design.
Vitra’s Schaudepot brings about 400 pieces of furniture into view
From finished classics to prototypes and experiments, Vitra Schaudepot opens up the making and keeping of furniture to visitors.