Cool Hunting

Transmaterial Book
Transmaterial, Blain Brownell's wonderful newsletter of all sorts of building material innovations, is finally being published as a book. Tile Toy and Flexicomb are just a couple of the fascinating things we found out about through TM and we're looking forward to the book both as brain candy and as a resource for more. There will be over 200 items not previously shared and...

How to Make {Almost} Everything
From the original ReadyMakers themselves (founders Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne) comes this new book full of the same kind of clever, well-designed projects that have earned ReadyMade props from the National Magazine Awards and design snobs alike. An idea-well of projects includes a Moss-worthy glass water bottle chandelier (pictured after the jump) to instructions that suggest readers cut a window in the cover...

Neubau Welt
Tired of the same old vector graphics everyone uses? Neubau Welt is a new book filled with 1000+ editable illustrations by Berlin-based designer Stefan Gandl (he also penned the collectable DSOS1) and his crew, Neubau. From silhouetted trees to lear jets, the encyclopedic collection features a wide variety of everyday objects. A useful alternative to ClipArt, purchasers get exclusive rights to the highly detailed,...

The Architect's Bird Feeder
Designed by architect Doug Patt (he's also one half of bi-coastal firm Rootphi), the Architect's Birdfeeder is made of eight interlocking polycarbonate (think bulletproof glass) pieces. Like Rootphi's Flat Pack housing, the structural elements ship flat and require no tools or fasteners for assembly. The upshot is product that's fun to put together, easy to refill and clean and eco-friendly. It also looks like a...

Poetry Nightstand
A surefire way to impress that guy or girl you take home Friday night is to stack scholarly books on your bedside table, as if you casually dropped them there after breezing through some weighty tome on relational aesthetics or quantum theory. For those without the time or brain capacity, you may consider the Poetry Nightstand, designed by Marian Lassak. Although it's not a...

Alessi Spring/Summer 2008
Alessi's upcoming Spring/Summer 2008 product line builds on their reputation for smartly-designed kitchenware. This season, the Italian company employed the talents of a handful of celebrated designers to create some interesting twists on standard fare. One example is the sleekly egg-shaped “Pop-Up” bottle cap opener, which is work of Milanese designer Giovanni Alessi Anghini. The pressure-operated mechanism removes the bottle cap in one downward...