10 Beautiful Things For A Beautiful Life
With this post we start to publish finalists of our guest author contest. Over three weeks 12 winning articles will be published — selected top-10-lists and discussion articles. You can follow our updates on Twitter 
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Written by Irina
We are using a lot of beautiful things every day. Once we understand how beautiful they are, the life is becoming better and more interesting… and when not… well, then they still make our life more interesting! There are some truly beautiful things to make our life a little bit more unusual and vivid. Most of them are quite usual but they can make our life and the lives of people around us a little bit more spectacular. The question is: do we need these things? – Of course we do!
1. USB Buddies
These small USB buddies look sweet and cool, but they are also damn useful! They look very distinctive and are available in a variety of styles — a small toy for big adults.
2. Puzzle Alarm Clock
For puzzle fans and for all who fall asleep when the alarm clock rings — Puzzle Alarm Clock. Nobody sleeps through this! It wakes you up by firing four puzzle pieces up in the air and then it is your task to get the pieces and put them back in the alarm clock — it won’t turn off until then.
3. Mandarina Cell Phone
Mandarina Cell Phone is something really beautiful for girls! Very colored, very feminine and very sweet! A mobile phone designed by Italian fashion brand Mandarina Duck. This colorful design creates a good mood and looks sexy; but it has some useful features and nostalgic accessories as well.
This retro-phone is at least as cool as Mandarina Cell Phone. A nice modern mobile phone with a retro-look. For the following suppliers of mobile phones usually no adapters are needed: Blackberry, Sanyo, LG, Panasonic, Sharp and Motorola. If you have another supplier you’ll need a special adapter.
4. Mouse-2
Mus2 is great for office equipment! Mus2 is a cordless optimal mouse which not only moves the mouse cursor on the display, but also looks like a mouse cursor. A pretty cool mouse which will manage to create the “Wow”-effect among your colleagues. Designed by Artemy Lebedev.
5. Animal Index Reindeer
Animal Index Reindeer is an index in the shape of animals that seem to jump right out of – and back into – your books. Decorate your shelves with these amusing indexes by inserting them among books or CDs, or using them as a way to mark areas where you removed an item. These animals will playfully make their home in your shelves.
6. Designer’s Knives Voodoo
Voodoo knife block. Who said that kitchen knives should be placed in a wood block? These voodoo knives set is an excellent present for those who love black humor. The little buddy has magnets next to the holes which will help you to stick the knife right into his body. Designed by the industrial designer Raffaele Iannello from Italy.
7. Canape Furniture
This is quite a strange canapé designed by Lila Jang. Well, you won’t be able to stretch your body with this one, but if you often write with the paper placed on your knees, you will appreciate the beauty and comfort of this piece.
8. Shining Pillow
Isn’t it nice to sit in a dark room and observe something bright and shining? Right, it is! But it is even more beautiful to put you arms around something soft and shining and cuddle up to it! That’s what a shining pillow is for! A truly magnificent idea by Diana Yu-Ju Lin.
9. Hepper Pod Pet Bed
What is it? The Hepper Pod Pet Bed offers the security of a mountaintop cave with way more style. It serves as your pet’s own personal sanctuary — a perfect place for curling up to snooze, hide, or reign supreme. For cats and small dogs.
10. Zoo Timers
Designed by George Nelson, 1965. Zoo Timers – colorful personalities from the animal kingdom – contrast sharply with Nelson’s sculptural wall clocks from the 1950′s thanks to their graphic touch. The Zoo Timers offer a playful and enjoyable approach to telling the time. These clocks are produced from the original design documents from the Nelson archive with the blessings of the George Nelson estate.
Editor’s note
This post is one of the finalists of our guest author contest. Over three weeks selected top-10-lists and discussion articles will be published. To rate the articles we’ll analyze their popularity, users activity, quality of backlinks, traffic and further data.
You can
We are looking forward to the next weeks!
Phil
August 10th, 2008 2:09 pmFirst post I hope!
Igor
August 10th, 2008 2:21 pmI’ll be waiting for new things. Please, continue this.
zagzooga
August 10th, 2008 2:24 pmsecond, im sure.
Paul
August 10th, 2008 2:24 pmhaha, god forbid you ever lost one of those puzzle pieces on that alarm clock.
(wtf is it with the first post thing, if you can’t say anything constructive, don’t post – It’s just lame)
Angie Bowen
August 10th, 2008 2:27 pmVery interesting article with lots of design inspiration. I have to admit though, I’m not sure I would ever get that alarm put back together when I first wake up. I fear it would be broken after two days lol.
Johnny
August 10th, 2008 2:27 pmAwesome stuff! We use a ton of those USB Buddies at our office at Designzillas.
Jay
August 10th, 2008 2:36 pmUmmm…what exactly happened to the 1200 character limit? This is over 3000. I know I worked pretty damn hard on editing and sizing down my submission to meet the requirements of this contest.
Laura
August 10th, 2008 2:37 pmGreat idea for a post, but really poorly written. Edit next time, please!
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 10th, 2008 2:45 pm@Jay (#7): there were no limits for top-10-lists.
@Laura (#8): thank you, noted.
Joe
August 10th, 2008 2:50 pmI agree with Laura – very poorly written, but it’s got some great inspirational things/ideas.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 10th, 2008 3:00 pm@Joe (#10): we have just edited some parts of the post.
pickupjojo
August 10th, 2008 3:19 pmVery great selection!
You should also like this retro phone :
Yubz Talk
… or maybe this one with Bluetooth :
Retro handset
Thanks for sharing Smashing Mag!
Alex
August 10th, 2008 4:09 pmThis article is really okay
Why do you keep saying that it’s poorly written?
Epidemic
August 10th, 2008 4:11 pmgreat thinghs…!!!
jajo
August 10th, 2008 4:20 pmHello,
1st Class article.
Thanks.
Marc
August 10th, 2008 5:23 pmI completely disagree with some of the things written here. The retro phone is embarrassingly stupid to use, even if I’m alone at home.
h-a-r-v
August 10th, 2008 5:51 pmI’ve seen at least half of these things before, the second half I don’t find beautiful at all (e.g. the alarm clock? It’s cool, but c’mon – not beautiful. Btw. there are tougher ones, like running or even flying away when the alarm starts – available in online stores with funny stuff n’ toys along with the USB buddies and the VooDoo Knife Block -> http://www.toys4boys.pl – just to mention my native one).
I’d call it rather “10 small things for daily life”. Still, I agree – cool idea for a top-ten-list.
Btw: isn’t “not bad” (in the poll) an acronym for “average” or something even better? Like “not bad, kid”. It’s rather positive, more than average, I’d say. What about replacing it with ‘poor’ and then ‘very bad’ or something, oppositely to ‘good’ and ‘excellent’? From one extreme to another.
Anjhero
August 10th, 2008 7:05 pmnice collections. wud like to hav the USB with south park characters (most preferably, Eric Cartman) though :D
Danny Tatom
August 10th, 2008 7:59 pmGreat stuff, I especially like the Animal Indexes and the shiny pillow! Would love to see some more beautiful things.
Jehzeel Laurente
August 10th, 2008 8:07 pmthis was really great.. specially the Mouse-2! I’m gonna buy that one!
Asif shah
August 10th, 2008 8:17 pmHave you categorized “Discussion articles” and “top-10 lists” in order to select winners? Are these 12 Winners will be categorize as 6 discussion articles and 6 top 10 lists? Since a limited character discussion article cannot compete with unlimited characters top-10 list. How its going to be judged?
Eric
August 10th, 2008 8:39 pm?
Eni
August 10th, 2008 9:01 pmMost of the items’ descriptions are copy/pasted..
Mike
August 10th, 2008 9:19 pmMeh, nothing overly special. The mouse was cool though.
Amanda
August 10th, 2008 9:23 pmNice stuff, but I would have liked the list to be longer! I was sad to get to the end so quickly. I don’t know about that chair though, I think it lacks practical function. Good conversation starter, I bet!
I agree about the “first post” thing, by the way. Save that kiddy crap for lolcats websites where its at least kind of cute. No one cares if you’re first here. What’s the point? Do you grab your friends and go, “ooh look, I’m first on Smashing Magazine?”
Sad.
Christopher Rees
August 10th, 2008 10:27 pmNot a fan of this article unfortunately. One or two things I hadn’t see before, but basically seemed like a trip through thinkgeek.com
Keep the posts featured on design (web, graphic, etc) and I’ll be a happy camper.. :)
Ade
August 10th, 2008 10:30 pmInspirational for some. The puzzle clock will break your morning lol.
Fabian
August 10th, 2008 10:37 pmI really like the gadgets, I would love to have the puzzle clock. Nice article!
Ash
August 10th, 2008 11:08 pmNot bad, interesting, but not really inspiring.
Withheld
August 11th, 2008 12:01 amExcellent examples to entartete kunst.
Mmahdi
August 11th, 2008 12:01 amExcellent, like every post
Anna
August 11th, 2008 12:02 amThe general idea of the post is interesting, but the choice of item for review is a bit boring and there is no author point for description – that makes this post further less interesting.
So – the idea is great but realization seems weak
kocsmy
August 11th, 2008 12:16 amlots of nice but useless stuff.
original
August 11th, 2008 12:21 amThis has already been mentioned.. but try copy and pasting some of the sentences in these descriptions into google.. lots of this isn’t original content?
Neil Thurlwell
August 11th, 2008 12:36 amI must admit that I have not even read this article. Just scrolled down the picture and wow. I’ve got to get one of those Star Wars pen drives !!!!!!
Ivan
August 11th, 2008 12:44 amThis was great! Too bad there are only 10 items on the list :( I demand a part2 of the series :) :)
johnson
August 11th, 2008 12:51 ampromoting pointless consumerism. very unenlightened piece.
Shona Tiger
August 11th, 2008 1:40 amIs this chindogu lol…. Nice post, made my day.
Tracer-Bullet
August 11th, 2008 1:56 amI agree with the sentiments that this post falls short of the quality expected for a top ten winner in this competition. Most of the list, copied descriptions aside, are merely items that have been popular on major design and gadget blogs over the past few months.
I’m not against a “shopping list of cool stuff” post, but seriously, given the obvious amount of time spent researching all the other content on Smashing Magazine, I would expect a much more interesting, original list then what was presented. At the very least, have some sort of coherent theme running through the items chosen.
dizzl
August 11th, 2008 1:59 amWhen are the others coming?
Siddharth.
August 11th, 2008 2:29 amThat Mandarina Cell Phone might be the handiwork of one Peter Saville, does anyone know for sure?
Also, it’s a bit weak to keep hammering someone whose first language might not even be English (I’m guessing). What’s important is that they have a thought, and have the requisite imagination to see that thought through. This list isn’t half-bad by those counts.
Nice job with widening the scope of ‘design’, Smashing. Those posts relating purely to web design were getting old. More topics = more fun :)
cameronqueen.com
August 11th, 2008 3:16 amOh dear, the fact you chose this article to lead your ‘winners’ posts is completely indicative of Smashing Mag recently: none of the originality we used to love and poorly written (to a native English speaker this is painful to read at times). Lets just hope the other 11 winners are better as, if this is the sort of content you are going to search (and then pay) for, SM is going to lose a lot of fans.. :-(
bruno byington
August 11th, 2008 3:31 amhey,
I personally think that the article is exhaustive and superficial. I mean writing five lines isnt an over-do in general. It might be generally speaking just the language use that I am concerned about even if you guys have already changed things. The Observer always has his or her opinion about Art and Design and I just think that even if the Design aspects are great (exception might be this glowing pillow that that feels like a place holder to fullfill the top ten criteria) the author seem to be too loose, superficial, without a clear and better structure to why something is beautiful and therefore great in design. Its not like she said “most beautiful Product Design with great usability.” Saying that something is beautiful that makes live easier is for me too cheap and corny.
Sorry for being dozens for time repetitive and I hope you see my critique as constructive.
Cosmi
August 11th, 2008 3:43 amExcellent article. I like it.
Puzzle Alarm Clock is very cool… i should buy one of this.
Joe
August 11th, 2008 4:04 amOh man, I’d kill for a human-sized bed-pod like the pet bed! Mmmm, womb-like.
Jeremy
August 11th, 2008 5:17 amI love that you took time to write a post about the simple, awkward and unique things in life that make us all a little happier. Great job.
Kastor
August 11th, 2008 5:18 amI really hope this isn’t indicative of the rests of the guest posts. Smashing Magazine is the best at posting useful, interesting articles. Unfortunately, this article is neither.
Steven
August 11th, 2008 5:19 amThis was a really fun article, and surprisingly, it showcased a lot of stuff I haven’t already seen on Notcot, etc. I think the people who are trying to smack it down have probably submitted entries of their own and are trying to sway the judges. ;)
heather
August 11th, 2008 5:23 ami agree with h.a.r.v that i wouldn’t call some of those “beautiful.”
the intro could be better written, it didn’t particularly move me to read the post (the great picture of the USB characters did).
and please refrain from saying that something is made for girls or made for boys, #3, things are often not used the way they were intended. and rather than saying it has useful features–please name a few.
shiido
August 11th, 2008 6:02 amweeee i loved the pillow by Diana Yu-Ju Lin., really nice!
Lisa
August 11th, 2008 6:04 amA more accurate title would have been 10 Random Things I Saw On Notcot.org.
As someone else has already pointed out, every other description is either barely paraphrased or copied directly from other websites. It’s just advertising text rebranded – badly – as an original article.
There’s no unifying theme or style in either the items themselves or the accompanying text. No attempt was made to explain why any given item is worthy of the epithet “beautiful” – some of it, in fact, is pretty damned ugly.
I understand that the articles were chosen on the merit of their ability to generate controversy, but there’s a fairly significant difference between an article being controversial for its original, articulate, calculated stance on an issue, and an article being controversial because most of its shoddy content was simply plagiarized. This is the latter. Not cool, Smashing Magazine.
thomas
August 11th, 2008 6:07 amHave the finalists of the guest post contest all been notified or will they just be surprised by seeing their post up one day?
Lisa
August 11th, 2008 6:20 amGrr, my formatting got messed up – that first paragraph should read:
“… every other article is either barely paraphrased or directly copied from other websites. It’s just advertising text rebranded – badly – as an original article.”
Brendan
August 11th, 2008 6:29 am“Most of them are ORDINARILY but they can make our life and the lives of people around us a little bit more spectacular.”
I truly wish that a website that claims (in its url) to be a magazine would restrict its articles to those that are written by people with an understanding of the English language. At the very least you could hire an editor.
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 11th, 2008 6:33 am@thomas (#52): no, the finalists have not been notified.
jamie O
August 11th, 2008 6:36 amOh common SM, even this cannot be compared to your past article “50 Photoshop Tutorials for Sky and Space Effects”
These objects are corny, and most of them will not be publicly displayed by a self-respecting person much less a designer.
If this is a tease of whats to come then I tremble with fear and zero anticipation.
Skeku
August 11th, 2008 8:34 amI think the comment I made this morning is in your spam inbox :D (or maybe I put too much links?)
Joseph Maguire
August 11th, 2008 8:45 amThis site never ceases to amaze me. I loved the glowing pillow and book holders. Really unique stuff. Keep inspiring us designers :)
Sincerely,
Joseph Maguire
Наталья
August 11th, 2008 10:02 amVery nice article. I love voodoo knife block and shining pillow. Great work and cool inpiration! LOL
Aadvark
August 11th, 2008 10:43 amYou mean synonym? An acronym for “not bad” would be “N.B.”
Jeff
August 11th, 2008 10:52 amThe items are interesting but the writing is poorly done.
picky
August 11th, 2008 12:28 pmnot an original idea but still a nice article…
Foobear
August 11th, 2008 1:06 pmI’m surprised the cardboard safari didn’t make the cut.
http://www.cardboardsafari.com
Diana
August 11th, 2008 4:31 pmThank you for including my project -Shining Pillow- in your 10 beautiful things for a beautiful life. However, could you maybe update the website?
The correct website is http://www.dianalindesign.com/products/rei.html
Thanks! I really appreciate it. The old website is having some problems and I need to fix it.
Thanks again!!!
NeoSheet
August 12th, 2008 1:07 ami wish retro phone is in my hand :(
Smashing! you always post nice article like always,
Danny
August 12th, 2008 2:40 ammeh, average, the “mouse2″ is really really old, and the retrophone should really link to the hulger phones, as they were the original (as Pokia) and are infinitely cooler.
il010471
August 12th, 2008 5:36 ambeautiful desingers and good idea…
h-a-r-v
August 12th, 2008 9:02 am#60 Aadvark: “synonym”, of course. 5:51AM after working all night long did the trick.. I’m also used to make strange typos in my native language when tired ;-)
Massimo Meijer
August 12th, 2008 1:12 pmI’ve got the the Voodoo knife at home, really like :)
Monk
August 12th, 2008 5:31 pmNot crazy about most of this stuff. There are much more “beautiful” alternatives for each of these. Maybe “interesting” or “unique” would have been better?
v.b.
August 13th, 2008 2:43 amwow very good!!!!!
CP Master
August 13th, 2008 9:49 amCool Stuff
Tooby
August 15th, 2008 10:02 pmCool stuff. I hope this article wins the contest. I avoid buying useless stuff but I’d like to purchase many of the oddities listed here.
somebody
August 19th, 2008 7:37 pmGreat article, Cashing Magazine, but you should change the article to:
“Ten beautiful things for conspicuous consumers who like to waste plastic and money”
geir nystad
August 29th, 2008 12:33 ami am looking for those posters of Tomasz Opasinski, do any of you know where i can find it?
Thr3e
August 29th, 2008 1:46 pmI like that … it look good to me!!! thanks for sharing
Web design Romania
September 4th, 2008 10:40 pmJunks
Nitesh
November 12th, 2008 3:21 ammost imp thing GIRL FRIEND Is not mentioned there..
Mufeed Ahmad (web Designer)
November 12th, 2008 3:25 amyes good designs
But we can make it more beautiful
yourhostsearch.com
May 26th, 2009 8:36 amThe friend recommended recently a good free web hosting, all the same the best service among the free!
Dave Nevill - Web Designer
July 7th, 2009 8:10 amI’m really need to get some of those USB Buddies! They look awesome. And the addon retro phone thing would be great to talk on at a stop light.
Zita Alexander
March 2nd, 2011 4:56 pmThat’s really cool! Thanks for sharing~
Elijah Clark
December 6th, 2011 11:13 pmwow, these things look awesome