Dornob | Design Ideas Daily

Drop the Drips: Ingenious Mug Kills the Awful Coffee Ring

Posted: 31 May 2013 10:00 AM PDT

Avid coffee drinkers are well aware of the frustration of the coffee ring: that nasty brown circle left on the table after you pick up your mug. No matter how hard you try to sip without dripping, it seems that one or two little drips always make their way down the side of the mug to mar whatever it’s sitting on.

Designer Kim Keun Ae has come up with an ingeniously simple solution to this rampant problem. The Drop Rest mug has a single small groove near the bottom of the mug. The groove uses the principle of surface tension to catch and hold those tiny little droplets and prevent them from reaching the very bottom of the mug.

Even turning the mug sideways when there are droplets captured in the groove (with the main chamber of the mug empty, of course) won’t free the little drops of java. They’re held securely until you wash the mug, which would probably take a bit more effort than washing a normal, non-grooved mug.

Of course, you could just use a coaster under your morning cup of coffee. But unless you’re always quite meticulous about where you set your coffee down, you’re better off just stopping the drips before they invade the mug’s bottom. The Drop Rest mug is only a concept and not a product that you can actually purchase, but we’re hoping some wise manufacturer will partner with the designer to make this brilliant idea happen.

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Wall-Hugging Visual Vase is a Friendly Floral Balancing Act

Posted: 30 May 2013 04:00 PM PDT

Unfortunately for plants, they can’t tell you when they are being neglected, but this odd little vase gives your flowers a voice. The Water Balance vase was designed by Risako Matsumoto as part of the Design Soil collective and offers a unique way to ensure your cut flowers never run out of water.

The vase is made of a simple piece of white ash, a fulcrum attached to the wall, and a movable weight. When you place a cut flower and some water in the vase, you also move the weight into the correct position to hold the piece of wood level.

As the water evaporates, the vase rises and the weight slowly drops. The subtle, incredibly slow movement gives a voice to the flower which would otherwise simply wilt in silence. The vase is a lovely visual reminder of those quiet errands we must tend to every day, and it allows a cut flower to bloom at least a few days longer thanks to your regular watering.