Skrekkøgle

I think I’ve found my favourite thing in the entire world. I was just stumbling around the web as I am wont to do, and I bumped into a tiny studio based in Oslo called Skrekkøgle. They make really beautiful products that are truly ingenious and seem really authentic to me. The reason behind the creation of all of their products is charmingly transparent. Take an analog activity sensor wristwatch, or an original piece of art that is created through the damage of sending it through snail mail.

Lars and Theo are two creative dudes, and from what I gather, they have a very healthy sense of humour (which they are not shy about instilling into their work, something I feel very strongly about). And they come together to make Skrekkøgle, a tiny product and digital design studio in Oslo. They do both consultancy and independent projects, some of which can be bought in their shop.

 Check this one out. Called Post Post, for the low price of 200 pounds, you can own a beautiful original, limited edition artworks generatively sculpted by reckless mailmen. The hexagonal piece, beautiful already at the start of the process, is mailed out to anywhere in the world, packaged in the lightest of plastic envelopes. As it makes its way to your address (the father the better, I gather), the damage caused through transport will shape the piece into the original artwork that it becomes.

Even the labels are hilarious! And did you notice the mailing address on that package?

The guys also created a blog where you can send your own 'after' photos of your custom art. Oddly enough, a man received his in Seattle pretty much unchanged. I guess he had a caring postman. See more about Post Post here.

Alright, moving on. I promised you an analog activity monitor, and oh boy are you gonna get one. Emulsion is a prototype for a wearable technology (or rather, lack thereof?) that shows you how much you're moving around with the help of two immiscible liquids. Basically, they don't mix. When the piece is shaken around by rigorous activity, the coloured liquid will particulate down into small dots, showing you that you're doing a good job of moving around. I love the simplicity of it!

In the words of the website: 

sitting still: baaaaad

moving around: goooooood

See more about Emulsion here. While you're at it, they need interest and funding to make the project real, so why not put in a good word?

And lastly, what is probably my favourite of them all. Remember playing Solitaire on your Windows computer (what's that?) for hours on end? Well, I do. I have no shame in declaring that there was once a point in my life when I played so much Solitaire that I would have dreams about it and click the mouse in my sleep. For real. It seems that I was not alone in my strange obsession, because our two fellows have created a real, precise 52-card sculpture of the winning animation for Solitaire. You know, when all the cards jump at you and bounce all over the window? Otherwise known as the most satisfying visual representation of anything, ever?

Imagine making all of those tiny pixelated cards?

Some of the stacks had to be cut to fit in with the others.

And the catalyst for the project: the original win screen.

I urge you to check out all of their other equally wondrous, hilarious, and necessary projects. I think the thing I admire most about them is that their work is so obviously made as a labour of love. These are two guys who figured out a way to do what they love, and make things that they want to see made. Not only is that the goal of life (at least to me), but they have provided themselves with the tools to be able to make things the way they want to make them. 

I can't tell you how many times I have used something as basic as a spatula or pair of scissors and wished that they were a little more this or that. I was just thinking about how the world of industrial design is rapidly becoming more accessible as the associated technologies become more developed and cheaper to produce. I can't wait until the day when we all have 3D printers in our homes.