What's coming into sharper focus isn't fidelity, it's foresight. Part of the work of Product Design today is conceptual: sensing trends, building future-proof systems, and thinking years ahead. But besides the current momentum, we still have to focus on real problems that bring real value as of now. This balance is sometimes challenging, but also creates opportunities to reform our thinking and approaches.
There was a time not too long ago when buying a power bank was as easy as choosing the cheapest portable battery that could charge your phone and quickly slip into your pocket, purse, or backpack. The hardest part was deciding whether it was time to ditch USB-A ports. Recently, however, brands have been slathering on features, many of which are superfluous, in an attempt to both stand out from the commodified pack and justify higher price points.
These metal clocks display their moving parts and details through perforated and transparent windows, making these hidden mechanics visible and adding a certain beauty to these timepieces. The bodies of the clocks are made using the traditional metalworking processes in the Niigata region and it involves cutting, bending, welding, and painting. The perforated sheets are produced with punch tools that create clean and consistent holes, ensuring each piece meets exacting standards.
The typical desk lamp is a metal stalk on a base that does nothing but hold it up, plus a switch somewhere along the cord. Most lamps are either on or off, with the base becoming dead weight that competes with notebooks, pens, and devices for space. EMIT is a concept that treats the base and the shade as active parts of how you work and how your desk feels when you are not working, giving the lamp two distinct postures instead of just one static stance.
AI tools are now embedded across almost every stage of product design. We use AI to generate ideas, summarize research findings, explore visual directions, write UX copy, and even ship working prototypes. Yet despite widespread adoption, many teams still struggle with a key question: How do you integrate AI into the design process without weakening design quality?
Last December, I was standing in front of a wall of bottles, paralyzed. Not because I don't like wine. I do. I was paralyzed because the entire experience was designed to make me feel small. The sommelier energy, the gatekeeping language, the implied message that if I couldn't name the terroir, I didn't deserve a good bottle. So I did what I always did: grabbed the same safe choice, went home, and told myself I'd "branch out next time."
Posha is a compact desk planter built around a passive self-watering system. It separates water storage from the soil zone, with a concealed reservoir at the base and a wick or capillary pathway that draws moisture upward only as the plant needs it. The roots stay hydrated without sitting in water, which reduces overwatering and stretches the time between refills in a way that suits distracted desk life and unpredictable schedules.
For years, Samsung has made products that try to camouflage what they are by displaying works of art. The Frame TV is the most famous example, but the company also released the Music Frame, a speaker disguised as a picture frame, at last year's CES. Now, instead of hiding a speaker with a piece of art, Samsung worked with designer Erwan Bouroullec to make a speaker into a piece of art.
Enter Lunora, a sleep aid device designed by Prithvi Manoj Bhaskaran that's honestly unlike anything you've seen on your bedside table. At first glance, it looks like a little sculptural figure taking a much-needed rest, complete with a glowing orb balanced on its back. That gentle lean, those smooth curves, it all feels intentional in the best way. This isn't another gadget screaming for your attention. It's the opposite.
You know that thing where you walk into your bedroom at the end of the day and just start emptying your pockets onto whatever flat surface is closest? Keys land on the dresser, wallet gets tossed on the nightstand, watch goes who knows where. It's a universal ritual of coming home, and it's exactly the kind of everyday moment that aerospace engineers Javier De Andrés García and Anaïs Wallet decided to redesign. Their brand, Unavela, takes the precision and intentionality of aerospace engineering and applies it to the mundane objects we interact with daily. The Unavela Valet Tray is a perfect example of this philosophy: it's a catchall that doesn't just catch, it elevates the entire experience of organization into something that feels considered and purposeful.
I had a client recently whose biggest issue was that users would get to the product dashboard and just... not know what to do. This is one of the most common problems I see in my consulting work, and it's almost never what the client thinks it is. They assume users need tutorials. They need tooltips. They need a help center with FAQ articles. What they actually need is scaffolding.
The final days before the holidays arrive with their own particular pressure. Gift lists grow longer while time grows shorter, and the temptation to settle for whatever's left on the shelf becomes real. Yet the best stocking stuffers aren't about expense or elaborate planning. They're about finding objects that feel intentional, considered, and genuinely useful. What separates a thoughtful gift from a forgettable one often comes down to design intelligence and material honesty.
Dreame built its name on robot vacuums and smart cleaning stations, but its newest release does not clean your floors at all. Dreame's Air Power 17 arrives as a magnetic portable power bank with a surprisingly polished feel, pairing an aluminum frame with AG glass and a footprint barely larger than a bank card. It clicks into place on an iPhone 17 or any Qi2 compatible phone, then quietly delivers up to 15 watts wirelessly or 20 watts over USB-C.
What Chen could not yet know was that this pursuit of simplicity would kick off a decade-long journey that stretched far beyond windows. It would draw in designers from across continents, ambassadors who believed in beauty as connection, and a community of creators bonded not by geography but by a shared desire to design with care. TWOPAGES would become a space where creativity became communal.
I usually take months to finish a book but this one took me 20 odd days. An avid book reader might be surprised by this number, but for me, this has been the fastest. The book I am talking about is Articulating Design Decisions by Tom Greever. Even though I have read only a handful of books, this was the only one that made me pause and take notes while reading.
The designers, Dániel Lakos and Míra Majoros, didn't just wake up one day and think "hey, let's make a paper pig." They were working on a project for Red Noses International, an organization that supports clown doctors who work with children in hospitals. The brief was pretty specific: create something that encourages young people to save money and donate, all while keeping the price under 10 EUR with minimal production costs. Not exactly an easy ask.
That's the basic description of a series of three lamps made by the luxury Italian lighting company Foscarini. The company's new Alicudi, Filicudi, and Panarea lamps, designed by Italian father-and-son design team Alberto and Francesco Meda, are formed from actual lava rock sourced from Mount Vesuvius. To own a piece of Italy's iconic volcano, you'll have to fork over $866 for any one of the lamp models.
The sleekly designed, multifunctional Stowaway Lap Desk is a far cry from clunky, cheaply produced, and ergonomically ineffective alternatives that have long dominated and stagnated the market. Its main feature - a fully enclosed and concealed compartment proportioned to hold a 14-inch laptop but also chargers, phones, earbuds, notebooks, pens, etc. - doesn't make the design too unwieldy, nor does its cushioned base.
Google Gemini is quickly becoming my favorite versatile AI tool. Not only is the quality of output that the latest AI model, Gemini 3 Pro, generates impressive, but Google has added a few great features that streamline interactions with the AI tool.
What makes a great EDC gift isn't just utility. It's the thoughtfulness behind choosing something beautifully designed, smartly engineered, and built to last. These seven picks earned their spot because we tested them, used them daily, and genuinely couldn't imagine going back. Each one solves a real problem while looking effortless in doing it. Whether you're shopping for someone who appreciates clever design or just building out your own carry, these are the pieces that deliver long after the packaging hits the recycling bin.
Handling product and design together in my last job was a relentless game. At the point I got laid off, I was juggling five work streams at once. Without a dedicated engineering team and no designer other than myself, I was scoping, researching, analyzing data, designing, writing tickets, running alignment meetings, reviewing builds, and resourcing in relentless two-week cycles... for multiple projects. By this point, I wore the reality-altering (or "reality-checking") hat that saw design merely as one of many tasks to get through.
Auk Mini is the smaller sibling to Auk's original six-pot system, a four-pot hydroponic planter that has already sold more than 100,000 units. The base is now available wrapped in natural cork, alongside oak and walnut finishes, turning the planter into something closer to furniture than a gadget. It ships with a 100-day money-back guarantee and has won awards from T3 and Esquire, but the story is the cork and how it changes presence.
The best workspace tools seamlessly integrate into your creative flow, making every interaction feel intentional. For designers who spend hours surrounded by materials, implements, and ideas, the objects on their desk become extensions of their thinking process. This holiday season presents an opportunity to replace utilitarian clutter with pieces that spark joy through thoughtful design and refined aesthetics. These five gifts represent a different approach to workspace essentials.
Enso is a tape measure concept that redefines measurement as a ritual, where precision meets care, and not the kind you hide in the drawer. The goal is not to add a screen or smart features, but to redesign the gesture itself, using overlapping circular forms and carefully tuned mechanics to make pulling a length feel calm and deliberate. The name references the Zen circle, a symbol of simplicity and mindful repetition.
But holding a photograph feels different. In recent years, Polaroid has leveraged the intrinsic value of collecting personal artifacts and tapped into the population's growing primordial desire to reflect fondly on what once was. The Polaroid Flip Instant Camera proposes a deliberate unbundling from the phone as a direct invitation to slow down and choose moments rather than hoard them. It's instant photography tempered by intentional, meaningful production.
Candles have been in use in some way, shape, or form for thousands of years. It's believed that both the ancient Egyptians and the Romans created a kind of wicked candle using rolled papyrus that was repeatedly dipped in melted beeswax or tallow. For centuries, until the advent electricity, they were an essential part of daily life. Today, the tapers, votives, and pillars we decorate our homes with are mostly just that-decoration-but that means they're ripe for creativity, and designers certainly take notice.
Meet Rebug, an urban insect adventure brand that's basically the lovechild of Pokemon Go and a nature documentary. Created by designers Jihyun Back, Yewon Lee, Wonjae Kim, and Seoyeon Hur, this isn't your grandmother's butterfly net situation. It's a whole ecosystem of beautifully designed products that make bug hunting feel less like a science project and more like the coolest treasure hunt ever.
The seven products that sold out within 24 hours shared common DNA. Japanese design principles met practical engineering. Everyday carry essentials elevated to conversation pieces. Emergency preparedness disguised as premium lifestyle goods. Each item justified desk space, pocket real estate, or shelf prominence through consistent daily value. These weren't gifts that prompted polite thank-yous. They sparked genuine excitement and immediate use.
