USB Concepts by dialog05 mixes conceptual art, USB technology, and hint of iPod sensibility. The concept are pretty straightforward: take some USB memory and wrap something visually challenging around the device. Then, finish off the device with the cute, blue USB universal icon for credibility. There are a number of concepts that dialog05 has created. I’ve chosen three that resonate with me. The first, above, is a USB in the shape of a lock. Besides being a brilliant way to secure data in a physical rather than digital manner, it also announces the importance of the data within the lock clasp.

Above, a syringe meets USB memory implicating data as a drug. Lord knows I consume it like a drug.

Finally, data merges with wedding ring. This somehow has a strange appeal for me because I’d imagine new rituals being created around the data and the ring. One beautiful and compelling sentiment could be that the USB contains documents of the most important memories that the couple shared. Over the course of the marriage, the rings can grow with documents as the couple grows. If the marriage hits a rough patch, the couple could simply pull off their ring, pop it into their computer, and relive those most cherished moments as a way to augment their memories.

All three of these concept have broad and very useful implications, and I hope in the near future that dialog05 consider manufacturing their very clever devices. I know I would buy one.

What do do with old weapons? Turn them in to luxury fashion accessories, of course! This was the concept that Gerhardt Kellermann adopted when he created his highly refined collection of recycled weaponry: Army Trash. Just take a grenade, defuse it (I’m assuming) paint it with gold and pink enamel, bejewel it with the finest of gems (or colored glass for the trailer park set) and you have grade A art fit for the likes of Britney Spears. One word of warning: his site appears to be down currently.

This table design has made the rounds, but it’s just smart enough to become a phenomenon: The Safe Bedside Table is a brilliant combination of modernist side table and billy club and shield. I originally found this post at Oh! Gizmo, then at TreeHugger, then at Spluch, and finally at its source: James McAdam (the designer). Whew!

Are you paranoid someone is out to get you? You need one of these tables. It’s much safer than putting a gun under your pillow, and a heck of a lot quieter when used.

I saw this post on Brand Spankin’ New, and I wanted to share this piece of usability design with you. The pictogram is shown on the face of a hand dryer. The problem with the design of the hand dryer is how does the designer express to a user how you might use a hand dryer. So, the designer uses pictograms to explain how to use the hand dryer, and the user sees it and the picture can have hundreds of interpretations such as “Press Button, Receive Bacon” which is a  completely valid reaction, but not what was intended. My solution to this is just take the pictogram off and hope for the initial users to figure these things out. I honestly would not use a hand dryer until I saw how someone else has used the hand dryer. That’s how I learn, I guess. Of course, what if the first users mistake the device as a coffee warmer. That may be a problem.

I just happened to notice this on Yahoo today, and I could not help but to put it on the blog. I present Bling H2O- the next best thing to selling luxury air is luxury water. The water is the brainchild of Kevin G. Boyd who is a Hollywood writer and producer (I’ll get to this later) who saw an increasing star battle over who had the most luxury water. He created Bling H20 to be the “Rolls Royce Phantom” of waters, as he puts it, to help facilitate the petty water war. I do not see this water in the same league with the Rolls Royce Phantom but rather a cheesy, gold encrusted lowrider. It’s kind of like shining shit: you can work really hard to make the shit look pretty, but in the end it’s still shit.

I have to admit that I like the frosted bottle, the Swarovski crystal logo, and even the form of the bottle is appealing. However, the price is sad. It cost fifty-five dollars a bottle for the limited edition bottles. That seems conspicuously attainable to me. If people were wanting to buy luxury water Bling H20 should make the price hundreds of dollars and have real craftspeople make the water and bottle. Instead, what Bling H20 has created is a product that anyone can buy. Which means I can afford it just as easily as the gawky, pimple faced teenage girl in the mall. What’s the fun of that? It does not, actually, create a culture of exclusivity which is the point of this brand (according to their own literature). What the price tag of fifty-five dollars actually creates is a product that is expensive enough to make people say “wow” but cheap enough not to question the product’s provenance. But the provenance needs to be looked at. The frosted bottle- is it a special bottle or is it just the typical 50 cent frosted bottle you can pick up wholesale. Are the Swarovski crystals actual glass? Who are putting these crystals on the bottles- sweatshop workers or well paid artisans? What do we really know about the water? Everything just smacks of a person trying to deal crack in the form of water.

And while we’re questioning the origins of the product itself, let’s think about the origins of its creator, Kevin G. Boyd. His career, from my look at IMDB, has not been terribly successful. He has written for the Jaime Foxx Show ten years ago, but since then has done very little in his career which leads me to wonder how he knows so much about celebrity water tastes. I’m wondering if during his one episode stint as a writer of “One on One” back in 2004 this experience has given him the true insight?

Regardless of the snake-oil-like feeling I get about this product, I should commend Bling H20 for a creating pretty good buzz.

Clement Eloy is a French product designer with an idea to help out dogs when they get the urge. Mr. Eloy has produced a number of provocative product designs in the past couple years, but this one is the most visceral. The Hotdoll. There’s not much to say about the concept that isn’t already obvious. The one thing that cracked me up was just how similar the Hotdoll looked compared to the Cingular logo.

I’ve read comments from other bloggers that this similarity in design styling is probably completely unrelated to Cingular, and it’s a bit of a fluke. Then, I remembered that Cingular’s mantra, it’s tag line, is “Cingular, raising the bar”. That is certainly what this product does. That is, it raises the “bar” of our canine friends.

Regardless of future lawsuits for copyright violation from Cingular, I think Mr. Eloy has tapped an otherwise un-thought of market which is pet porn. And as silly as this idea is, it’s still helping dogs out by letting them enjoy their lives more when another dog isn’t available. I just wouldn’t want to be the one having to clean te sex toy.