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This LEGO Campbell’s Soup Can Opens to Reveal Andy Warhol’s Entire Factory Studio

In 1962, Andy Warhol turned a humble soup can into an art world phenomenon. Now, a LEGO Ideas submission is turning that same can into something equally revolutionary: a buildable gateway to understanding the artist himself. This isn’t just about stacking bricks into a cylindrical shape, though the technical achievement of creating such smooth curves at 24 studs diameter deserves recognition. This project represents months of research into Warhol’s working methods, his relationship with popular culture, and the visual language of The Factory that became synonymous with 1960s avant-garde creativity.

Open the can and the transformation is immediate. The metallic interior contrasts sharply with the familiar red and white exterior, creating an Alice-in-Wonderland moment where everyday packaging becomes an art studio. Printed artworks cover the walls and floor, reflecting Warhol’s habit of painting directly on the ground surrounded by his creations. The Andy Warhol minifigure with signature silver wig presides over a space filled with props from his actual studio: the disco ball, the motorcycle, the couch where celebrities and artists mingled. It’s both a display piece for design enthusiasts and an educational tool that makes pop art accessible, proving LEGO sets can be as culturally significant as they are fun to build.

Designer: HonorableImmenseWorriz

The build sits at 1,117 pieces and stretches to 32.6 centimeters tall, which sounds manageable until you realize the entire cylinder uses curved slope elements to achieve those smooth walls. Most builders avoid large-scale curves because getting a 24-stud diameter to look this polished requires serious geometric planning. The three-section hinge system adds another challenge since you need structural integrity while maintaining mechanical function. What separates this from typical pop culture tributes is the commitment to printed elements over stickers, with Campbell’s branding, artwork tiles, and even the gold medal seal all printed directly onto bricks. The Marilyn Monroe quad portrait, Flowers series, purple Cow prints, they’re all there on the metallic silver walls that reference The Factory’s legendary aluminum foil aesthetic.

HonorableImmenseWorriz , the builder, positions it as “a LEGO set for the kitchen,” which completes the conceptual loop Warhol started by elevating everyday consumer goods to fine art status. You build this, place it near your actual soup cans, and your kitchen becomes gallery space. The 32 stickers showing different Campbell’s soup flavors let you customize and swap variations, mirroring Warhol’s seriality philosophy from his original 1962 series that featured 32 different canvases. The father-son collaboration behind it shows in the prop selection too, each item chosen for historical accuracy rather than visual filler. That red couch, the orange motorcycle, the camera on tripod, they’re narrative anchors to The Factory’s actual chaos, not random accessories.

The project’s currently a fan submission on the LEGO Ideas website – an online forum where enthusiasts share their own creations and vote for favorites. MOCs (My Own Creations) that hit the 10,000 vote mark then get sent to LEGO’s team for approval before being turned into a retail box set that anyone can buy. If you fancy yourself a LEGO ode to Warhol (and Campbell), head down to the LEGO Ideas forum and cast your vote for this build! It’s free!

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This $28 Power Bank Accidentally Recreated the iPhone 3G Design

Cuktech just dropped their 10 Air magnetic power bank in China, and honestly, the most interesting thing about it has nothing to do with the specs. Sure, it’s got a 10,000mAh battery with 55W wired fast charging and 15W wireless, and yeah, the CNY 199 price tag (roughly $28) is aggressively reasonable. But look at the damn thing. That silver body with the black magnetic strip running across the bottom? Slap this on the back of your iPhone and you’ve accidentally recreated the iPhone 3G’s iconic two-tone design.

I can’t tell if this is deliberate nostalgia bait or a happy accident, but either way, it’s working. The iPhone 3G had that silver aluminum back with the black plastic bottom for the antennas, and this power bank’s layout mirrors it almost perfectly. It’s like wearing your phone’s ancestral portrait as a backpack. The magnetic strip sits right where that glossy black section used to be, and suddenly your sleek 2025 smartphone is cosplaying as a 2008 legend.

Designer: Cuktech

Beyond the accidental throwback aesthetic, Cuktech packed in a built-in display that shows actual charging data instead of making you interpret cryptic LED blinks like you’re reading Morse code. The brand claims it can take an iPhone 17 from zero to full about 1.8 times, the Galaxy S25 Ultra gets 1.3 cycles, and the Xiaomi 17 Pro manages 1.1. These numbers track for a 10,000mAh capacity when you account for conversion losses, so at least they’re not inflating claims. Most flagships hit 50 percent in around 30 minutes with this thing, which is solid performance for something this affordable. The 55W wired output does the heavy lifting here since the 15W wireless is more about convenience than speed.

The bundled USB-C cable has a self-storing design, which sounds gimmicky until you’ve untangled your charging cable from your keys for the thousandth time. Cuktech also mentions their “OPC worry-free charging” technology for battery health, though I’m skeptical of proprietary acronyms until I see independent testing. What matters is that the fundamentals are sound: decent capacity, legitimate fast charging, and a price that doesn’t require a mortgage. The fact that it accidentally turns your modern phone into a design artifact from the Steve Jobs era is just a bonus. No word on global availability yet, but Cuktech usually brings their products international eventually, and this one deserves the trip.

The post This $28 Power Bank Accidentally Recreated the iPhone 3G Design first appeared on Yanko Design.

DIY Spotify-to-Cassette Player Adds Analog Warmth to Digital Streaming Audio

Most audio enthusiasts fall into one of two camps: the ones chasing perfect fidelity with lossless files and the ones who swear their vinyl sounds warmer. Julius decided to build a bridge between these worlds, and it looks like something Q would hand to James Bond if the mission involved a particularly groovy villain.

His cassette streaming device takes Bluetooth audio and runs it through an actual tape loop before playback, physically imprinting that analog character onto digital streams. The engineering journey was brutal. Turns out cassette decks from decades past have some deeply weird ideas about electrical grounding, and getting modern Bluetooth hardware to play nice with positive-rail-referenced vintage electronics required DC isolating voltage regulators and more than a few creative workarounds. The payoff is a device that looks incredible and introduces real tape saturation without any digital fakery.

Designer: Julius Makes

The concept is straightforward. Bluetooth audio arrives digitally, converts to analog, mixes from stereo to mono, records onto cassette tape, travels around the loop, hits a playback head, then reaches the speaker. That physical trip through magnetic tape creates the warmth people obsess over. The compression happens because ferric oxide particles on polyester film genuinely can’t capture digital audio’s full range. These are real physical limitations making the sound different, and somehow our ears prefer it that way. Julius made the tape loop visible on purpose, sitting outside the cassette with orange guide brackets so you watch it move while listening.

Getting everything to work required solving problems that shouldn’t exist anymore. Cassette decks connect their chassis to the positive power rail instead of ground. Julius only learned this after bolting his grounded metal case directly to the deck with screws, nearly shorting everything. The audio input shielding also runs to positive, which makes zero sense if you’re used to modern electronics. His Bluetooth module expected normal ground references, creating a fundamental incompatibility. An isolation transformer from AliExpress failed completely. He tried powering the Bluetooth at 12.5 volts while referencing it to 7.5 volts, but that rail wouldn’t sink current. Three months of debugging until DC isolating voltage regulators finally solved it.

The VU meter uses a fluorescent tube that works backward from what you’d expect. Silence keeps it fully lit, loud beats make it dim. Julius inverts the signal on purpose so the tube glows when the device sits idle, which looks better and extends the tube’s life. The circuit gains the audio signal 500 times, clips it hard to isolate peaks, then runs through a diode detector with a capacitor for smoothing. The power amp inverts everything again and boosts another five times to drive the tube. The lag you see in the meter’s response comes from that smoothing capacitor, which is a feature since nobody wants a seizure-inducing flicker.

He built five separate circuit modules. One auto-starts the Bluetooth by faking a long button press with an RC pulse generator. Another converts stereo to mono for the recorder. The playback preamp amplifies the tape signal and applies EQ compensation, splitting output between the speaker and the meter circuits. Everything lives on custom PCBs he designed in KiCad after a month of learning the software. The stainless steel case handles shielding and heat dissipation from the power amp. A laser-cut acrylic panel makes the front transparent. The big orange knob pushes record volume into distortion territory. The small knob controls speaker output. Input and output jacks mean you can use this as a tape delay or saturation processor for other gear, which honestly might be more useful than Bluetooth streaming through cassette tape. But useful was never really the point.

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This fingertip-sized flashlight pushes rechargeable EDC to its absolute limit

World’s smallest and world’s biggest are two phrases that never fail to grab attention, especially when they’re attached to something as utilitarian as a flashlight. This fingertip-sized rechargeable torch does exactly that, not by chasing gimmicks, but by pushing miniaturization to an almost obsessive extreme. Built as a DIY experiment by YouTube channel Gadget Industry, the flashlight shrinks a fully functional, rechargeable light source into a form factor so small it’s easy to forget it’s even there, until the moment you need it.

At first glance, the scale alone feels unreal. The flashlight can sit comfortably on the tip of a finger, yet it houses a lithium-polymer battery, a charging circuit, a touch-based control system, and a white LED, all sealed into a compact resin shell. It’s a reminder that innovation doesn’t always come from adding more features, but from stripping everything down to what’s essential. In a world crowded with bulky EDC gear promising extreme brightness and endless modes, this micro torch takes the opposite route, prioritizing presence and accessibility over raw power.

Designer: Gadget Industry

The build begins with a tiny 60mAh lithium-polymer battery, chosen specifically for its balance between capacity and size. To make charging possible without inflating the footprint, the maker disassembles a TP4056 USB-C charging board and integrates only the necessary components directly into the layout. A touch sensor replaces a traditional mechanical switch, working through an N-channel MOSFET to control the LED. The result is a simple, intuitive interaction: place your finger over the sensor and the light turns on, remove it and it shuts off. There’s no click, no resistance, and no moving parts to fail over time.

Encasing everything in resin serves both functional and aesthetic purposes. The hardened shell protects the delicate internals from scratches and minor impacts while allowing the flashlight to be shaped and sanded into an organic, pebble-like form. The USB-C port is carefully preserved during the casting process, making recharging as straightforward as plugging it into any modern cable. While the casing offers limited resistance to splashes, it’s clearly not designed for submersion or harsh outdoor abuse, this is a light meant for convenience, not combat.

Performance is modest but respectable given the scale. The LED provides enough illumination for close-range tasks like navigating dark hallways, peeking into tight corners, or serving as an emergency backup when nothing else is available. On a full charge, the flashlight runs for roughly half an hour, depending on the LED used, which feels surprisingly practical for something this small. Compared to commercially available keychain flashlights, there are obvious compromises in brightness and durability, but none of them detracts from the core achievement.

What makes this project compelling isn’t whether it officially qualifies as the world’s smallest rechargeable flashlight, it’s the mindset behind the craft. This build showcases the patience, precision, and restraint required to design at such a tiny scale, proving that even the most familiar objects can be reimagined when size becomes the primary constraint.

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This Desktop Board Fixes the Problem Phones Created

We’ve all been there. You sit down to check your calendar, and thirty minutes later you’re three layers deep in Instagram stories wondering where your morning went. Our phones were supposed to make us more productive, but somewhere along the way, they became the world’s most sophisticated distraction machines. Enter Focus, a desktop board from Vestel Design Center that’s reimagining how we interact with our digital lives without falling down the social media rabbit hole.

At first glance, Focus looks like a minimalist piece of desk art, which honestly might be the smartest design choice they could have made. The device combines an E Ink display panel with a magnetic tool board and built-in speaker, creating what they’re calling a “multifunctional hub.” But what it really is? A thoughtful intervention between you and your phone’s never-ending notification nightmare.

Designer: Vestel Design Center

The E Ink panel is the star of the show here. If you’ve ever used a Kindle, you know that magical paper-like quality that’s easy on the eyes and visible in basically any lighting. Focus takes that same technology and turns it into your personal command center. It syncs with your phone to display your tasks, calendar events, and selected notifications. The key word being “selected.” You get to choose what makes it through, which means your cousin’s hot takes and algorithm-fed content suggestions stay firmly where they belong: on your phone, not in your line of sight while you’re trying to work.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Focus isn’t just about filtering information. It integrates with your smart home ecosystem, letting you control lights, adjust your thermostat, or manage security without reaching for your phone. Think about how many times you unlock your phone for one simple task and end up scrolling for fifteen minutes. This board cuts out that middle step entirely. Need to dim the lights for a video call? Done. Want to check if you locked the front door? Right there on the screen. All without breaking your workflow or tempting yourself with whatever’s happening on Twitter.

The design itself shows real restraint, which feels refreshing in a world where tech products often scream for attention. The illuminated base ensures the E Ink display stays visible even in darker rooms, solving one of the technology’s traditional limitations. And when you’re not actively using it, the panel switches to display mode, showing artwork or other visuals. It becomes part of your space rather than just another gadget cluttering your desk.

The magnetic tool board section adds a physical element that’s surprisingly practical. There’s something satisfying about having a designated spot for your glasses, pen, or phone that’s both functional and looks intentional. It’s the kind of detail that suggests the designers actually thought about how people work, not just how to cram more features into a product.

What makes Focus particularly relevant right now is its underlying philosophy. We’re all dealing with attention fatigue, that exhausting sense that our brains are being pulled in seventeen directions at once. The constant ping of notifications has trained us to be reactive rather than intentional about how we spend our time. This board is essentially saying, “What if your technology helped you stay on track instead of constantly derailing you?”

Of course, the success of something like Focus depends entirely on execution. The interface needs to be genuinely intuitive, the smart home integration reliable, and the filtering system actually useful rather than frustrating. But the concept addresses a real problem that a lot of us are struggling with: how to benefit from technology without letting it dominate our attention.

Tech companies have been competing for every second of our focus so there’s something almost radical about a device designed to give us less, not more. Focus isn’t trying to replace your phone or become another screen demanding your attention. It’s positioning itself as the thoughtful middleman, the calm voice in the chaos, the tool that helps you engage with technology on your terms.

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Peak Pouch Turns 5,180 Tons of Park Waste Into Trash Bag Holders

South Korea’s national parks removed trash bins to protect ecosystems and pushed a carry-in, carry-out policy. The unintended side effect is that visitors hide trash in rock crevices or behind trees because they lack an easy way to deal with it. Over five years, 5,180 tons of waste were collected from parks, roughly 200 fully loaded 25-ton trucks, underlining the scale of the problem when good intentions meet poor infrastructure.

Peak Pouch is part of a National Park Upcycling Project, a portable waste-bag dispenser and bag holder made from waste wood decks and plastics collected directly from the parks. The designers argue that visitors are not short on environmental awareness; they are short on tools and motivation. Peak Pouch turns the abstract idea of conservation into something you can hold and use on every hike, making the right behavior easier than hiding trash.

Designer: Hyunbin Kim

Peak Pouch is a small, organic cylinder inspired by the curves of Baengnokdam crater in Hallasan National Park. The body is a blend of upcycled wood and plastic, with irregular speckles and a rough but warm texture that the designers leave visible. It feels closer to a small stone or piece of bark than a gadget, helping it sit naturally in a hiking context and build an emotional link to the landscape it came from.

The product is built from just three parts for intuitive use. It uses biodegradable roll bags to keep the system sustainable, and the bottom slot uses a simple twist-lock mechanism for refilling. You twist off the base, drop in a new roll, twist it back on, and you are done. The simplicity reduces friction, so carrying and refilling bags does not feel like a chore.

Peak Pouch is designed for immediate access during hikes. A side slit lets you pull and tear bags one-handed while walking, so you do not have to stop and unpack. A sturdy top strap clips to a backpack or belt loop, keeping the dispenser visible and within reach. The idea is to make grabbing a bag when you need one the path of least resistance.

After you have filled a bag, a dedicated holder on the side lets you tie it off and attach it securely, so you do not have to carry it in your hand on the way down. That matters on steep or uneven trails, where having both hands free makes the descent safer and more comfortable. It turns carrying out waste from an awkward burden into something that feels planned for.

Peak Pouch comes in signature colors derived from the landscapes of major Korean national parks like Halla, Seorak, and Bukhansan, with each park’s name embossed on the body. After the hike, the bag holder’s built-in magnet lets it live on a refrigerator or metal furniture as a memo or photo clip, quietly reminding you of the trail and your role in keeping it clean.

Peak Pouch reframes the park souvenir. Instead of a passive trinket, it is a piece of the park’s own waste turned into a tool that helps you leave less behind. By living on your pack during hikes and on your fridge between them, it nudges you from passive awareness to active practice, one pulled bag and carried-out wrapper at a time, making zero-waste hiking feel like something you choose rather than something you dread.

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5 Red Dot Award Winning Designed to Change the World: Submission Closes January 16, 2026

The world’s most prestigious design competition is back, and this year it’s bigger and more exciting than ever. Starting September 15, 2025, the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026 has officially opens its doors to designers, manufacturers, and innovators worldwide who are ready to showcase their exceptional creations on the global stage.

For over 70 years, the Red Dot Award has been the ultimate benchmark for design excellence, celebrating products that push boundaries and redefine what’s possible. This year’s competition promises to be particularly thrilling, with exciting new developments that reflect our rapidly evolving design landscape.

What’s New for 2026: Gaming & Streaming Takes Center Stage

Perhaps the most exciting addition to this year’s competition is the brand-new Gaming & Streaming category. Recognizing the explosive growth of this industry that now reaches millions worldwide, Red Dot is giving these innovative products the dedicated recognition they deserve. From cutting-edge gaming peripherals to revolutionary streaming equipment, this category acknowledges that gaming and streaming have become key drivers of product innovation in our digital age.

Whether you’ve designed the next game-changing controller, a revolutionary streaming setup, or an immersive VR headset, this new category provides the perfect platform to showcase your work to an international audience of design professionals and enthusiasts.

Click Here to Submit your design to the prestigious Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026!

Drawing Inspiration from Excellence: Here’s our Top 5 picks of 2025

Participation in the Red Dot Award holds significant value for designers seeking to elevate their careers and expand their influence in the design community. Winning this internationally recognized award makes creative skills visible to a global audience, as award-winning products are presented across multiple prestigious platforms including the Red Dot Design Museum Essen, worldwide exhibitions, the Red Dot Design Yearbook, and extensive online and social media channels.

For emerging designers, the recognition can be transformative – supporting product launches, opening doors to new opportunities, and expanding professional networks within the international design industry. The comprehensive visibility and credibility that comes with a Red Dot Award provides designers with a powerful tool to distinguish their work in an increasingly competitive market, while affirming their commitment to excellence in design innovation and quality. To understand what makes a Red Dot winner, let’s look at the ingenious designs that captured hearts and minds in 2025.

Cayo by Koninklijke Gazelle

This Dutch e-bike combines minimalist aesthetics with advanced technical innovation, seamlessly integrating all components into a clean, timeless design characterized by clearly defined lines and the absence of superfluous elements. The Cayo bridges traditional cycling culture with the future of urban mobility, proving that everyday transportation on two wheels can embody both urban elegance and cutting-edge technology.

Paper Stick by YONWOO

This revolutionary sustainable packaging solution for stick-form cosmetics eliminates plastic entirely by using moisture-resistant mineral paper made from quarry stone waste that users simply peel off in a spiral motion. The innovative design achieves clean tear-off edges through precision die-cutting while offering manufacturers extensive branding opportunities through customizable printing, hot foil stamping, and various paper types for different tactile experiences.

nwm ONE by NTT sonority, 83Design Inc.

These groundbreaking open-ear headphones strip away traditional cushions and sealing, instead floating around the ears while using proprietary PSZ (Personalised Sound Zone) technology with inverse phase waves to prevent sound leakage. The minimal ring-shaped design features pivoting speaker units that deliver optimized audio directly into the ear canal without physical contact, creating an invisible bubble of sound that only the wearer can hear while staying fully aware of their surroundings.

iA Notebook by Information Architects Inc.

Originally designed as a gift for customers of their text and presentation software, this meticulously crafted notebook employs a lay-flat binding that allows writers to use entire double-page spreads without binding interference. Packaged in a wooden box with an embossed sleeve cover, every detail expresses appreciation for the written word through simple elegance and exceptional craftsmanship that required iterative prototyping to perfect.

VITILITY ID Walking Cane by MIXED.Industries BV

This mobility aid makes a conscious statement against the stigma of aging and physical limitations by combining clear, elegant design with functional excellence that proves good design can change social perceptions. The walking cane allows users who depend on mobility assistance to feel independent and style-conscious, transforming a traditionally stigmatized object into a character-defining accessory.

The Evaluation Process: Where Excellence Meets Expertise

Your submitted products will face scrutiny from approximately 40 international experts representing diverse fields and perspectives. This distinguished jury follows the evaluation philosophy established by Professor Dr. Peter Zec, Red Dot’s Founder and CEO, assessing each entry based on function, aesthetics, ease of use, and responsibility.

The jury awards two levels of distinction: the coveted “Red Dot” award and the prestigious “Red Dot: Best of the Best” for truly exceptional designs that set new standards in their categories.

Important Dates to Remember

Registration Period: September 15, 2025 to January 16, 2026

Jury Evaluation: Spring 2026

Award Ceremony: July 7, 2026

Your Path to Global Recognition

Winners don’t just receive an award. They gain access to a comprehensive platform for showcasing their achievements. Award-winning products are featured in the Red Dot Design Museum Essen, international exhibitions, the prestigious Red Dot Design Yearbook, and across digital platforms reaching design enthusiasts worldwide.

The celebration culminates at the glamorous Red Dot Gala on July 7, 2026, in Essen, where winners are honored before an international audience. For those unable to attend in person, the event will be livestreamed globally, ensuring maximum exposure for your innovative designs.

Ready to join the ranks of design excellence? Visit www.red-dot.org/pd to submit your groundbreaking products and compete for one of the most respected accolades in the design world. The Red Dot Award: Product Design 2026 isn’t just a competition. It’s your gateway to global recognition and design immortality.

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This DIY Wooden Battery Charger Brings Dead AAs Back to Life

Most homes accumulate a drawer full of dead AA and AAA batteries, and the uneasy feeling of tossing heavy little cylinders into recycling or the trash. Alkaline cells are marketed as single-use, even though the chemistry can often be coaxed back to life with the right kind of intervention. RegenBox 1 is a small, hands-on challenge to that throwaway logic, turning battery regeneration into a bench-top ritual that requires patience, measurement, and a soldering iron.

RegenBox 1 is a kit that arrives as a flat collection of components, a printed circuit board, electronic parts, and laser-cut wooden panels. Once assembled, it becomes a USB-powered regenerator for AA and AAA alkaline batteries, designed for electronics hobbyists rather than casual users. The wooden case and visible PCB make it feel more like a lab instrument or workshop project than a sealed plastic charger, and building it yourself is half the point.

Designer: Regenbox

Assembly requires a soldering iron and solder, a voltmeter, flat-nose pliers, wire cutters, and a small screwdriver, plus some electronics confidence. The kit supplies the PCB, resistors, diodes, LEDs, IC, battery holders, USB cable, and the wooden enclosure. You are not just buying a gadget, you are learning how it works as you put it together, turning the components into a functional regenerator that can sit on your desk or workbench for years.

Using it starts with testing each alkaline cell with a voltmeter. Below 0.9 V goes to recycling, 0.9 V to 1.35 V is a candidate for regeneration, and 1.35 V to 1.5 V is already reusable. Once cells are slotted in and the USB 5 V input is connected, the circuit feeds very low current for 8 to 24 hours, slowly reversing part of the discharge without stressing the casing or causing leaks.

The boundaries are strict, alkaline only, no lithium, no damaged or leaking cells, correct polarity, and room-temperature use. The red and orange LEDs indicate current flow and help with diagnostics, but the real discipline is in measuring voltages before and after, and respecting the chemistry. It is not a fast charger; it is a patient tool that trades speed for safety and extended second lives.

Getting one or more extra cycles out of batteries that would otherwise be discarded adds up across a household or community. The open, repairable design invites modification and learning, turning energy use into something you can see and tweak. RegenBox 1 becomes a quiet protest against sealed, opaque devices, and a small workshop ally for anyone trying to reduce waste while gaining control over the objects they depend on.

RegenBox 1 changes the way you look at dead alkalines. Instead of being the end of the story, they become candidates for triage, measurement, and careful regeneration. The wooden box on the bench is a reminder that design can intervene not just at the point of purchase, but at the moment we usually give up on an object, asking whether it really needs to be thrown away yet or if a slow, gentle charge might bring it back for another round.

The post This DIY Wooden Battery Charger Brings Dead AAs Back to Life first appeared on Yanko Design.

This $89 Fountain Pen Shows You the Ink Flowing Through it’s 3D Printed Maze

Nib is the first thing I want right when choosing a fountain pen, then I look for its design and aesthetics afterwards. Endless Stationery, a Chennai, India-based global stationery brand, that successfully created a retractable fountain pen and raised close to $250,000 in funding for it in 2024, wants to change my idea in favor of aesthetics without compromising the writing experience.

The company has partnered with 3D printing experts Arclayer to design and launch Maze fountain pen, which makes “what used to be hidden… the star of the show.” The new series of fountain pens has a see-through body, allowing you to gawk at the flowing ink within the geometric patterns 3D printed inside the pen.

Click Here to Buy Now: $89 $99 (10% off). Hurry! Raised over $280,000 already.

Arclayer is redefining the writing instrument as we know it through these visually appealing 3D-printed fountain pens for Endless Stationery. The Maze pen created in partnership, answers the simple question, “why can’t a pen be beautiful on the outside and the inside,” which the makers asked themselves before getting down to creating a fountain pen built from “light, resin, and imagination.”

Within each Maze pen is a 3D printed architecture in the form of DNA, pattern or spiral, which allows the ink to flow through them, creating a visually exciting display unlike anything ever seen before in a pen. While Maze pens are standard, the Maze Pro features the Japanese eyedropper inking system that makes the pen easy to carry in movement-intensive journeys or even on airplanes; soring at high altitudes without worrying about the ink leaking at pressure changes.

For the design of these pens, the upper body and the grip section are made from acrylic, while the barrel is made by 3D printing resin. All the Maze pens are formed using resin printing, which makes it possible to have the ink chambers designed the way they are. 3D printing allows a clear finish and internal geometry without adding weight to the pen design. It comes in a special casing which doubles as a fidget toy, if that’s something you tend to spend extra on.

The pen interiors are lively and show the company’s own Alchemy Ink flow through the interesting architecture, yet the intriguing design is easy to clean. It can be rinsed with water to keep the ink flow smooth. The Maze pens come in five unique patterns, DNA, Morse, Twist, Coil, and Swirl and as many colors, with the choice to pick from extra-fine, fine, medium, broad, and a special architect nib.

Currently, the Maze and Maze Pro fountain pens are available for preorder through Kickstarter, where they are enjoying a successful crowdfunding campaign. You can preorder a Maze fountain pen starting $89, while the Maze Pro costs $10 extra. The campaign is also providing a celebratory Christmas combo, which you can get for $135 now. It includes a Maze Pro, a pen pouch, Alchemy Ink, and a set of Storyboard Pocket Notebook.

Click Here to Buy Now: $89 $99 (10% off). Hurry! Raised over $280,000 already.

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How a Modest Zinc-Clad Retreat Won Scotland’s Top Architecture Prize

Nestled into the rolling hills of rural Stirlingshire, a modest zinc-clad home has captured the attention of Scotland’s architecture community. Grianan, designed by Cameron Webster Architects for jewellery designers Neil Smith and Wesley Zwiep, recently claimed both Best Building and the Overall Chapter Prize from the Scottish Society of Architects, cementing its place among the country’s most thoughtful residential projects.

The name itself tells much of the story. Grianan translates from Gaelic as “sunny place,” a fitting description for this single-storey retreat that seems to bask in its landscape setting. The two-bedroom home sits within gardens that the owners meticulously cultivated from what was once an overgrown field. Since acquiring the plot in 2017, Smith and Zwiep have transformed the site into a thriving orchard dotted with over 10 varieties of Birch and Japanese Maple. Pine martens, owls, and woodpeckers now visit regularly, drawn to the flourishing ecosystem.

Designer: Cameron Webster Architects

The clients, who run Orro Contemporary Jewellery in Glasgow’s West End, approached Cameron Webster Architects with a clear vision: create a compact home where they could immerse themselves in their garden while enjoying views of the surrounding hills. The architects responded with a design that privileges simplicity and material honesty. The clean form of the zinc-clad structure sits modestly within its setting, allowing the building’s materiality to speak for itself rather than competing with the landscape.

“There wasn’t a single inspiration point,” explains Stuart Cameron, co-founder of Cameron Webster Architects. “It’s more about developing a plan to suit the site specifics and then considering appropriate materials from an aesthetic and budget point of view.” This pragmatic approach has yielded a home that feels both site-specific and quietly confident in its restraint.

What makes Grianan particularly compelling is its demonstration that thoughtful architecture need not shout to make an impact. The home’s modest footprint and careful siting create a private retreat that enhances rather than dominates its garden setting. For Smith and Zwiep, the result is exactly what they sought: a place to cosy up while remaining deeply connected to the landscape they’ve so carefully nurtured. In an era of increasingly complex residential projects, Grianan offers a quiet reminder that simplicity, executed with precision and care, remains architecture’s most enduring virtue.

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