Shoebox Dwelling: This furniture collection from Australian company KARTON made me gasp. The pieces are so elaborately designed – I can barely perceive them as temporary solutions. Constructed from high grade corrugated cardboard, the line ranges from sitting, dining and sleeping pieces to office furniture and modular storage. No tools and hardware are required to put these objects together. And when […]
Cardboard Furniture
OpenStudy Social Network for Students
TechCrunch: Education-focused startup OpenStudy is a platform for “massively multi-player study groups.” What this means is that students who are studying the same subject like math or writing can ask and answer questions on OpenStudy, which uses Facebook Connect to let users interact and learn collaboratively through profiles and group chat. OpenStudy aims to make education fun by providing users […]
Flexible Door Handle
“Kobu” is the Japanese term that I used to define the concept of a flexible and adaptable lever handle. The project was born from a ready made of industrial materials for studing new methods to approach the object. The particular structure consists of a stiff brass core, mounted on a recessed rose and connected to a flexible stem which allows […]
Foodie Search
Springwise: Billed as a “community of culinary tourism,” French Spoontrip is a place where travelers can book activities with local, gastronomy-minded providers while locals with a culinary flair can offer and advertise their own activities for free. Site-specific visits, meet-and-greets with producers, tastings, gourmet ateliers, cooking classes, weekend stays at a farm, and gastronomy-themed holidays are just a sampling of […]
Make Cooling Mist
FreshTrend: Tired of traveling and not being able to sleep because the air is too dry? Use this lightweight, portable humidifier that generates a cool mist using ultrasonic vibrations and regular tap water from any water bottle. Features include whisper-quiet operation, mist output control, automatic shut-off, and an empty bottle indicator. Travel Humidifier [FreshTrend]
Market Research from Social Networks
Aiming to provide higher-quality results at a lower price, Chicago-based Lab42 conducts its clients’ surveys not in artificially assembled panels but in the social networks where target respondents naturally spend their time. Lab42 takes the survey to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and smaller niche social networks, using highly targeted incentives to garner attention and responses. Two packages are available from Lab42: […]
TransferWise Currency Exchange
TransferWise, founded by early employees of Skype, is a new service offering better currency exchange rates by connecting consumers. With its aim to become the Skype of currency exchange, the service makes it possible for European consumers to make pound-euro exchanges without paying the service fee to banks, usually around 6%. Consumers send their funds to TransferWise’s account, as a […]
Bus Ticket Purchase via SMS
Springwise: Through a partnership with mobile payments firm Bemoov, ATAF — short for Azienda Trasporti Area Fiorentina — now gives riders on its Florence city buses a way to buy their tickets via SMS. Users of the service simply register with Bemoov to link a credit card with their phone and then send a text message with the text “ATAF” […]
Audio in Print
Adverblog: To promote a music festival in Brazil, F/Nazca came up with the amazing idea of embedding an audio message on the cover of Playboy magazine. A mini-chip has been inserted in the cover and users can listen to the an audio message (whispered by a young woman) simply plugging an headset in the jack. One more way to make […]
Suburban Camping
Suburban Camping is a company that sets up a variety of camping scenarios in your backyard, from canvas tents to cots and trail mix bars to outdoor movies. All campsites are set up by an experienced outfitter with one or multiple tents and sleeping bags, cots, lighting and whatever extras clients might request. By nurturing genuine connections through the camping […]