Big & Cute in Japan: Nendo-Designed Gadgetry for Elecom

Japanese design studio Nendo, producers of striking ideas, and Elecom, a PC-accessories manufacturer, have been collaborating for a while now. Their latest conjugated effort follows the philosophy of ‘If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’, and brings customers two awesomely designed mice, plus an innovative data memory stick, which, for the first time ever in the history of data sticks is quite hard to misplace. The mice, ‘Orime’ (‘fold’, in Japanese) and ‘Kasane’ (‘stack’, in Japanese), typify the perfect balance between design and functionality. The Orime looks like a piece of Origami, with its numerous, ergonomic facets and five buttons. There’s a retro aesthetic at play behind it and, for variety, it is available in several colors. The Kasane stacks its five buttons on top of each other, and its layered vibe is also reminiscent of paper. Both gadgets are wireless and laser-operated, they feature side buttons, plus left- and right-hand click buttons. Their wireless radio systems operate on 2.4 GHs bandwidths, which makes the mice available on a radio wave range of approximately 10 meters tops above non-magnetic surfaces and a 3 meter range above magnetic materials.

The ‘Data Hook’ is basically a carabineer with a USB stick inside. It comes in black, red, green, blue and white. It can be attached to bags, various rods and cables. You can also chain several of them together, and you’ll be sure never to lose any of these puppies. Or, at least, you can be sure they will be tougher to misplace than traditional USB cables. Besides, the multi-colored line-up is honestly too cute to pass up, as data chains move to replace the daisy chains of yore. All photos taken by Hiroshi Iwasaki.

(Source: Nendo.jp)