As we count down to the end of the year and the start of a new decade, have a look at the ten most popular posts of 2019.

There has been much talk and a rave reviews about the sound quality of the SYMFONISK speaker collection given its price point, but to be honest we are not 100% sold on the overall design.

One of the main reasons people sleep with their smartphones at their bedsides is, they claim, that they need to use the alarm function to get up in the morning. True or not, having the device so easily to hand can often lead to mindless scrolling at 2 am, bouts of broken rest and poor sleep habits.

One of the best ways to get off our phones in the wee hours and to be assured of a good night’s sleep would be to put the phone away and rely on an old-fashioned alarm clock. There is no need for the device to be boring either. Not when it looks like this.

The Aaren Kulor silicone watch collection by Skagen has been giving Swatch a run for their money in terms of fun.

We have never been able to use in-ear headphones with much success. They are often uncomfortable and unwieldy, even the wireless ones. Nor do we want to look like we are walking around with twigs or broken Q-Tips sticking out of our ears, therefore we were immediately interested in the look of the Human Headphones’ wireless, over ear design.

From the Light Phone in all of its versions to the simplicity of the Placebo Phone, we have long been proponents of less is more when it comes to the super computer in our pocket. The BoringPhone is the latest answer to the problem of how to balance the usefulness of a phone with the time-consuming distractions the modern smartphone encourages.

The Chrome Dino Set was designed in New York by Andrew Bell to commemorate 10 years of Google's Chrome browser. The pixelated dinosaur and cacti may be graphics to those who recall the struggle of intermittent internet service. Dead Zebra has created a limited set of figurines which includes the T-rex and four cacti so you can recreate the ERR_INTERNET_DISCONNECTED screen any where you like. 

Driven by a calm design ethos, Mui have created a display that doesn't look like your typical computer screen.

Relax by StudioDWAS is time made poetry and a simple reminder that moments matter.

The toothbrush is a designer staple perhaps second only to the chair, so the Usetool Toothbrush seeks to set itself apart from the crowd with its stylish design. The sonic wave toothbrush by Jiyoun Kim Studio comes with a wireless steriliser and a small magnet in the neck of the toothbrush allows it to be stored vertically on the bathroom wall. By Usetool Company.

Like something out of a science fiction novel, IKEA's newest product aims to improve the health of your indoor environment while also making it beautiful. 

The Swedish ready-to-assemble furniture retailer has developed a type of fabric that can actively purify the air in your home. Called GUNRID, the curtain uses a technology IKEA has been developing over the last few years in collaboration with universities in Europe and Asia. A mineral-based, photocatalyst coating is applied to the surface of the fabric and, using a process similar to photosynthesis, it breaks down particles of common indoor air pollutants such as odours and formaldehyde, thereby cleaning the air. For the photosynthetic process, either artificial or natural light can trigger the effect, but details as to exactly what type of particles it can act on, and how large they need to be, have not yet been released. 

While the GUNRID curtains are the first product to use the textile, the newly developed technology is not restricted to curtains. It can be used on other soft furnishings such as bedding and cushions. 

In colder climates where fresh air may not be available all year around, the application of this fabric could be tremendous.  But don't rush to your nearest IKEA just yet; a prototype of the curtain will not be released until 2020.

These beautiful, sculptural clothes by Israeli designer Noa Ravi are inspired by computer glitches and digital errors. Ravi crafts her pieces by creating "defective" digital images in 3D using a command that the native software in unable to execute. Called the Hard Copy collection, the pieces swirl and envelop the body. She keeps to a limited palette - mainly monochromatic - which allows the form to take centre stage.

The textiles used in the collection were developed in conjunction with Stratasys.

The single colour of the Midtone calculator by Selek Design helps it meet its aim of creating as little visual fatigue as possible. The design unifies the LCD display with the main body of the device creating a monochromatic look.

On October 1, 2018, Google celebrated the 230th birthday of Bermuda-born slave Mary Prince with this illustration.

Born in 1788 in Brackish Pond, Bermuda, Prince was sold several times during her life. She ended up on the island of Antigua in 1815 where she joined the Moravian church and at the age of 29 learned to read. Although she married, she and her husband were shortly separated thereafter because Prince’s family moved to England taking her with them. This act turned out to be fortuitous from Prince because following the passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1807, slavery was no longer allowed in England, although the institution of slavery continued in the British colonies. Prince was legally free on British soil, but she had no means to support herself. Under the prevailing rules of the time, if she tried to return home to her husband, she would risk being enslaved again.

In 1829 Prince became the first woman to present a petition to the English Parliament, arguing for her human right to freedom. That same year some of her associates in the anti-slavery abolitionist movement introduced a bill proposing that any West Indian slave brought to England by his or her owners must be freed. While the legislation did not pass, momentum began to shift in favour of the abolitionists' cause. 

Two years later Prince published her autobiography, making her the first black woman to publish a slave narrative in England. Her book played a decisive role in turning British public opinion against the centuries-old institution of human enslavement. Published in 1831, the book caused a sensation, going through three printings in the first year alone. In one of the book’s many heartbreaking passages, Prince recalled being sold “like sheep or cattle” on the same day as her younger sisters Hannah and Dina were sold to different masters.

“When the sale was over, my mother hugged and kissed us, and mourned over us, begging of us to keep up a good heart, and do our duty to our new masters. It was a sad parting; one went one way, one another, and our poor mammy went home with nothing.” 

On August 1, 1838, some 800,000 slaves living in British colonies throughout the Caribbean were finally set free following the passage of Great Britain’s Slavery Abolition Act, which was passed by Parliament two years after the publication of Prince’s book. Not much is known of what happened to Prince in her later years; she may have stayed in England or returned home to the Caribbean.  Despite not having received a formal education, Prince is recognised as a National Hero of Bermuda for her work to abolish slavery. She has been commemorated with a statute and recently a national holiday has been proposed to celebrate her life and achievements.

With the year of the pig upon us, we thought we’d take a tongue-in-cheek look at some pig-themed fashion and design over the next few days. With all the talk of bitcoin and cryptocurrency floating around these days, Pigzbe has set its mark on a younger crowd with a virtual take on the traditional piggy-bank. The two-part system includes a toy and related app and children can receive, save and spend cryptocurrency they earn while practicing financial responsibility. 

Much has been written lamenting society's addiction to mobile devices and with good reason. What the impact of our compulsion is is beyond the scope of this publication, but the need to check our devices frequently cannot be disputed. Recognising this fact and following on from the recent fad for spinners, the Substitute Phone was developed as a cure for this affliction. Approximately the same size and shape as the average smartphone but without any digital functions, the face of the "device" consists of a number of roller balls laid out in different configurations that are designed to mimic the movements we make hundreds of times on a daily basis: swipe up, down, zoom and scroll. The fact that the functions of the Substitute Phone are limited is meant to be soothing and should go a long way towards helping addicts cope with their smartphone withdrawal symptoms.   

Image | BeoSound

This uniquely coloured set of sound pieces were originally made for the launch the BeoSound 1 in 2016. Each unit is one-of-a-kind having been made of anodised and dyed aluminium. They are engraved with "1/1" to highlight their uniqueness, but in all other respects are identical in functionality and output to the standard BeoSound 1.

The units are available via Sotheby's at a starting bid of $3,000. The auction closes tomorrow.

We wrote about the original Light Phone several years ago. It was created by Joe Hollier and Kaiwei Tang, an artist and product designer who met inside of a NYC-based Google incubator in 2014. This latest iteration continues along the same minimal theme, but has been modified for the way we use phones today. The essentials remain: the 4G LTE phone now has a high-resolution, matte e-ink touchscreen that is only visible when it's in use, a larger microphone and  speaker, clean, a custom operating system that allows phone calls, contact lists, messaging, clock and alarm. It is still fairly paired down; it doesn't include any 'unnecessary' apps, music or tools, but features such as a proximity sensor and the up and down buttons will improve functionality.

The Light Phone is available in white or black and will begin shipping by April 2019.

Breathe is a glassware collaboration by Bermudian glass artist Jahday Ford and digital programmer Joseph Hillary. Ford is a recent graduate of The Manchester School of Art and specialises in hot glass and mould design. The pair combine recording, digital rendering and wood moulding to create this new concept. Applying seemingly diverse methods into a single product can often backfire, but Ford and Hillary have managed to create a thing of beauty.

Ford is keen to explore new synergies between glass and other materials such as wood, metal, and clay that are made possible by new innovations and, in particular, the forms and textures these interactions create that were previously not possible by the use of traditional techniques. After recording the sound of Ford’s glass blowing into the iron pipe, the audio wave pattern was transferred into a visual stimulus and manipulated into a three-dimensional form. Using a digital programme developed by Hillary, a beech-wood mould was created using a CNC router to accurately mill the desired shape. The super-heated glass was then poured into and shaped by the moulds’ inner contours. As the glass cools, unique patterns and striations are created on its surface effectively creating a one-of-a-kind object that is frozen in time..

Breathe was a finalist in Liberty’s Open Call 2018 and in conjunction with this honour was displayed at the Manchester Craft & Design Centre. The work has also been exhibited in galleries around the United Kingdom including New Designers and The National Centre for Craft & Design. It will be on display at Design Junction in September.

If you are anything like us, you're constantly juggling the charging of your electronic devices in an effort to keep them powered and ready to go at a moment's notice. Instead of playing musical chairs with your devices, Node lightning multi-charger by I Love Handles is a elegant solution that allows you to charge up to three items at a time.