2020 Gift Guide: Design Milk Faves

We are grateful to Project Watches for supporting this gift guide. Our partners are hand picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.

We see a lot of great modern design working here, so it can be hard to “pick favorites.” That said, there are a few that have really stood out to our team and our readers. If you’re still struggling with what to get someone on your list (or what to ask for), here are some top picks from the Design Milk Shop!

Reveal Watch by Project Watches /// from $105
Projects Watches is a small business that celebrates creators around the globe through wearable works of art. Their artistic timepieces make for the best unique, affordable gifts this holiday season and beyond. The Reveal Classic Watch allows you to watch time in the present. This timekeeper reveals the current time through a looking glass while fading the past and the future. Available with either a leather or stainless steel mesh band and comes in both 40mm and 33mm – there’s a style and size for anyone on your list.

Seadpod 5 Pack by Plantseads /// $55
This brand takes its name Sead as an acronym for Sustainable Ecology, Adaptive Design. What makes these Seadpods so cool? They make it easy to create a vertical garden in places you wouldn’t have previously even considered. It’s the perfect way to grow some greenery, even if there isn’t a lot of space.

Large Natural Orbis Concrete Vessel by Konzuk /// $63
This is a great gift for the hard-to-shop-for person on your list. In its simplest guise, the concrete vessel works as a standalone design object. However, if desired, it can also function as a home for a scent diffuser, succulent plant or anything else that fits inside the vessel. Each one is handcrafted, making this work of high-modernism a unique gift for anyone.

Wick Portable LED Candlelight by graypants /// 149
If you blend the romance of candlelight with the functionality of a lantern, you get Wick. It provides portable LED candlelight – and there’s no worry about the candle burning out! Wick’s versatility makes it great for an office, living room, dining room and even outside. That also means it’s a great choice for anyone you’re shopping for. You can feel confident in your choice because this is also one of the Design Milk community’s favorite products of 2020!

Limited-Edition Carl Cashman “Social Distancing” Vase by Venus + the Cat /// $515
Only 50 of these limited-edition vases were made (and each is uniquely numbered) – that makes this a pretty damn special gift. This exclusive was commissioned by renowned contemporary street artist Carl Cashman, and his eye-catching style uses color, dynamism, character and personality with stark negative space that shines through on this vase.

Hagl Black Mat by Heymat /// from $150
Hagl’s design means that guests will notice it the moment they walk by it. The pattern, designed by Caroline Olsson, is inspired by hail against a dark sky, and it is a playful addition to any doorway. And, it’s made to hold up to shoes that have braved the wettest winters (which the design is based on after all).

Monti Taste Set by Sempli /// $100
The Monti Taste Set is designed for beer lovers – and it’s a gift that lasts a lot longer than a six-pack. In it, you’ll find four of Sempli’s glasses, each specially designed to enhance the flavor profiles of different beer styles.

Fade Puzzle by Four Point Puzzles /// $25
Puzzles have consistently been a community favorite this year! The Fade Puzzle image was designed by Swedish artist Sara Andreasson in 2014 as part of a series of work that focuses on form and the application of bold color applied with a gradient pattern. You can see the work of art come to life with each puzzle piece you place. It comes in a puzzle bundle, too!

Snow White Pantone Sneaker (men’s sizing) (women’s sizing) by Cariuma /// $89
OCA is Cariuma’s popular signature sneaker and this version comes with a Pantone twist. It’s crafted from high-end, raw materials, it’s lightweight, and it has a classic cap-toe design for comfort and style. All in all, we see why this shoe is so popular with our community. The neutral Pantone Snow White color makes it a great choice for Pantone lovers and for holiday gifting because it works with every wardrobe.

Boeien Salt and Pepper Set by Puik /// $30
Designed by Ka-Lai Chan, the Boeien Salt and Pepper Set isn’t your basic salt and pepper set. They’re playful, beautifully constructed, and stand out. Really, it’s everything you want in a holiday gift.

Adulting Candle by Anecdote Candles /// $24
Candles are a classic holiday gift because you can’t really go wrong with one. Anecdote Candles raises the bar with creative and nuanced scents, high-quality materials and a hand-poured approach. It’s no wonder these are one of our community (and team!) favorites.

If you’re still undecided or haven’t found the right gift, there’s one universal gift that is well-liked by friends, family, colleagues, and kids alike: the Design Milk gift card. Let your recipient pick out something for themselves from our shop. We’re sure that they’ll find something they didn’t even know they wanted.

In support of the Design Milk Mission and to celebrate Giving Tuesday, we’re donating 10% of our ecommerce sales made on Dec 1st, 2020 to this quarter’s charity recipient Share Our Strength! That’s 10 times our everyday donation, so finish your shopping and help us give back! Share Our Strength is the parent organization of No Kid Hungry, Cooking Matters and Community Wealth Matters and other programs with a mission to end hunger and poverty in the U.S. and abroad. Donate today!

Check out the rest of our 2020 Gift Guides here!

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The MINI Vision Urbanaut’s Creative Use of Space

The following post is brought to you by MINI. Our partners are hand picked by the Design Milk team because they represent the best in design.

When BMW relaunched MINI back in 2001, the modernized wee car was lauded for recapturing all the best parts of the delightful puckish attitude and styling cues that made the 1959 original an icon. Today the BMW Group is hoping to establish a new expression of the MINI brand, one that takes that minimal footprint, stretching it in every direction into a spacious concept , taking advantage of the space-saving benefits of an all-electric platform.

VR headsets help visualize what the spacious four-seat layout might look inside the MINI Vision Urbanaut during #NEXTGen. Photo: BMW Group

The experience proposed by the MINI Vision Urbanaut is made possible by the migration toward the skateboard-like platform of an electric drive system; without all previous required trappings of a gas fuel engine, the MINI Design team was able to create an interior experience more like a living room than car cabin. In fact, the team of designers began plans for the MINI Vision Urbanaut’s interior before any exterior detailing was developed, using floor plans, pieces of furniture plus wooden scale models to provide an indication of size, with augmented reality employed to create a digital model across the vehicle’s 4.46 m in length.

Oliver Heilmer, Head of MINI Design describes the MINI Vision Urbanaut as an “[extension] of the user’s private space into the public sphere”, a near-future vehicle with a form that is only “mini” in moniker. Alongside all the expected cutting-edge features one might expect from a future-gazing concept – minimalist and screen and haptic touch-laden interface sans any buttons or switches, recycled material woven textile upholstery, an array of LEDs to change the exterior appearance/colors of the vehicle – MINI Design proposes a novel digital-analogue interface to activate personalized “moments”.

The MINI Token is a literal physical token shaped to store customized comfort and technology settings, an activation “between an analogue object and a digital connection”. Inserted into a table slot, the Token activates preconfigured MINI Moments labeled “Chill”, “Wanderlust” and “Vibe”, alongside a user-customized “My MINI moment”. Set into a configured slot, the Token awakens a bevy of interior effects, ranging from ambient lighting, music preferences, and even fragrances to adjust what the vehicle smells like.

The MINI Vision Urbanaut’s nearly seamless surface and compact rounded edges paired with wheels pushed to the outer corners of the body give the silhouette a tadpole-like silhouette, while also communicating a spaciousness to be revealed within. And that soft matte exterior gradient isn’t just a rendered flourish; “Zero Gravity” is a tri-ombre metallic effect transitioning from green to blue to a subtle toned gray that continues onto the windows as a patterned gradient. The effect is aesthetic, but also replaces a standard tint for a color-tinged barrier, delivering privacy and also blocking out sunlight.

Both front and back of the vehicle are outfitted with milled aluminum covers perforated with an array of multi-color dynamic matrix lights capable of signaling, illuminating the road, and also displaying custom graphics. And to maintain the DNA of the MINI heritage, the Urbanaut’s front features the identifiable round headlights associated with every MINI vehicle.

Envisioning a more polite vision of the future, the Urbanaut is designed to inform other drivers whether the vehicle’s automated driving function is activated; the LED matrix across both the front and rear end exterior surfaces signal when the driver has taken the wheel or in instances when the automated driving function is engaged.

“In 1959, the very first Mini ushered in a small-scale revolution in vehicle construction with its transversely mounted engine. With the MINI Vision Urbanaut we have been able to rethink and increase the usable surface area inside the car even further in relation to its footprint.” – Oliver Heilmer, Head of MINI Design

When parked the dashboard lowers and the driver’s area transforms into a “daybed”, with the option to open the windscreen into the MINI Moments, “Street Balcony”.

Positioned along the driver’s side C-pillar is a space designated for “charms” – badges imagined to adorn the vehicle much in the same way hiking patches or destination stickers are often collected during road trips and camping adventures. One charm is dedicated to the #NEXTGen 2020 platform on which the MINI Vision Urbanaut has been celebrating its world premiere. Another has a QR code which, when scanned, takes you to MINI.com.

The MINI Vision Urbanaut takes the living room concept to a very relaxing and inviting next level, with a rear seat bench (appropriately called the “Cosy Corner”) designed to operate much like a sofa. The backlit textile Loop with mood lighting stretches above the seating to recreate glancing through the dappled light of a forest canopy, complete with ambient music and atmospheric nature sounds.

A small side table is outfitted with a slot for the Token, and in Chill moment a lamp is activated to complete the sensation of being in a room rather than a vehicle (and also where the Token is designed to be inserted).

The four LED-illuminated wheels took their styling cues from an unexpected source: skateboard wheels

As is the case of all designs envisioned to prognosticate the future of mobility, the MINI Vision Urbanaut is intended as an expression of the brand’s long term plans, with many of the vehicle’s technologies and design cues sure to inspire future MINI models. The Urbanaut’s spacious interior accompanied alongside the environment-enhancing MINI Moments hint the future of the British automotive brand will open up entirely novel and customizable usage scenarios, each giving driver and occupants the creature comforts of home while on the road.

Learn more about the MINI Vision Urbanaut here.

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Bang & Olufsen Celebrates 95 Years With the New Beovision Contour OLED

The newly announced minimalist 48” Beovision Contour is 100% Bang & Olufsen, a sleek piece of technology disguised as furniture designed to be proudly displayed as the centerpiece of a home entertainment center, whether mounted on a wall, placed atop a console or set onto a dedicated floor stand. It also arrives in celebration of the Danish brand’s 95th year designing audio and video gear with unmistakable character.

If there’s anything the Danish manufacturer does it is put on an attractive face. And the Beovision Contour is certainly a good looking set, combining aluminum, oak and fabric in various configurations with equally successfully attractive results (our favorite being a combination of Anthracite and a smoked oak veneer grill).

Those worried the Beovision Contour is all looks and no personality will be relieved to learn class-leading LG OLED GX screen technology resides within (the same panel from our recent tech gift guide), capable of producing 4K resolution pictures graced with those gloriously super-inky blacks only organic light emitting diodes can currently deliver at a reasonable cost.

Each Beovision Contour is crafted and assembled in Bang and Olufsen’s Factory 5 in Struer, Denmark.

The description of “reasonable” here being highly subjective, as this is a $5,600 set and just a 48-inch display at that. But it also arrives with an integrated three-channel and Dolby Atmos sound system, an orchestra of audio componentry combining 11 amplifiers with four 4″ woofer drivers, four 1.5″ mid-range drivers and three 3/4″ tweeter drivers, and handsomely so.

If you’re capable of spending this sort of money on a television, what’s another $375 for an optional limited edition gold tone universal remote made from a single piece of extruded aluminum?

The Beovision Contour is scheduled to arrive in February 2021, with options of  Silver, Black Anthracite and Gold Tone finished aluminum frames paired with a selection of matching fabric covers or wood veneer grill in Light Oak or Smoked Oak.

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Live, Work and Play Like a Local at The Student Hotel, Delft

The Student Hotel combines student accommodations with hotel rooms and longer-stay options so you can live and work alongside fellow travelers, locals and students – and its latest iteration, in Delft in the Netherlands, is designed with circularity principles in mind.

The space has been designed by Amsterdam-based boutique interior design studio The Invisible Party, in collaboration with the brand’s in-house design team, according to the circular design principles of reducing waste and keeping objects and materials in use.

Opened on October 1, 2020, this new co-working and co-living space has taken up residence next to Delft Central Station in ‘Nieuw-Delft’, the heart of the city’s green development program.

“The Student Hotel has a strong and distinct brand identity across its 15 sites, but for each new location they seek a genuine connection with the city, the neighborhood and the community,” says Vivian van Schagen, founder and creative director of The Invisible Party. “For Delft, we tapped into the technical DNA and history of the city as the basis for our project research. This ultimately gave this project its own identity and experience within the lines of the brand,”

The agency made circularity and community central to the brief for their scheme and the outcome aims to be a welcoming hub where the community can come together – whether that’s local innovators and creatives, international travelers or students from Delft University of Technology.

To make the students feel at home and provide a visual link with the university, they deliberately chose materials, patterns, prints and shapes with a technical theme in mind; from computer grids to aerodynamic shapes. These were combined with the playful character of The Student Hotel brand and practical requirements of such a multifunctional space with multiple public functions.

Co-working spaces, flexible working zones, conference facilities and meeting pods provide peaceful and private zones for work, study and meetings. The walls inspire visitors through hand-drawn illustrations by graphic designer Monsieur Hubert and a mural by artist Chantal van Heeswijk.

The Commons, the hotel’s restaurant, was inspired by the concept of a ‘grand café’ and designed for locals as well as guests to enjoy. Lush indoor planting, rounded forms and joyful colors soften the concrete columns and extensive glazing.

Curtains, industrial chandeliers and wall-to-wall banquet benches create different zones and seating areas, where guests can dine convivially.

The heart of The Commons is the fifteen-meter long cocktail bar that doubles up as an open kitchen. The eclectic materials and color palette of recycled plastic tables, sky blue bar stools, bright red sofas and a recycled confetti screed floor ensure that the space is always decorated, even before the tables have been set.

The use of recycled plastic is just one of the many circularity-driven design decisions in a project that – driven by the motto “less is more” – in which the reuse, preservation of value and reduction of the carbon footprint were central throughout.

Chairs made from old jeans are paired with vintage pieces and all the screws and bolts designed to be easily removed so that the furniture is ready to be disassembled and repurposed or recycled at the end of its life.

All the hotel’s public surfaces are entirely constructed from recyclable materials, such as recycled plastic milk caps – and a detail that is a sly wink for Dutch guests is that the felt used to cover the walls is made from recycled Efteling costumes. “From a sustainable perspective, we have worked with suppliers and materials that are circular, environmentally friendly or upcycled,” says van Schagen “An example is the impressive wall on entry; for this we made a recycled plastic wallcovering, designed with a Delft Blue color theme to which we added a distinct The Student Hotel color accent.”

What: The Student Hotel, Delft
Where: Van Leeuwenhoekpark 1 2611 DW, Delft
How much: From €69 per night
Highlights: The Commons’ fifteen-meter long cocktail bar made from recycled milk-bottle tops.
Design draw: Hand-drawn illustrations by graphic designer Monsieur Hubert and a mural by artist Chantal van Heeswijk.
Book it: The Student Hotel, Delft

Go virtually on vacation with more design destinations right here.

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