Brooklyn-based designer Akemi Tanaka's elegant wall-mounted cat perch is a far cry from the leftover-carpet look of most feline beds. Made from bent plywood covered in a maple or walnut veneer, the bed will support up to 35 pounds, and you can toss the removable cushion in the washing machine.

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Although he describes this particular project of his as "useless" and "nerdy," it's hard not to like designer Quentin Thiaucourt's Scroll Clock. Here's the clock in action, and here's a gallery of other scrollbars he's amassed.

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Automobile materials technology trickling down to the consumer products sector: About four years ago Nissan, working with researchers at the University of Tokyo and a company called Advanced Softmaterials Inc., quietly developed "Scratch Shield" paint, which "self-heals fine scratches and is capable of restoring the vehicle's paint surfaces overnight or up to a week's time in more severe cases." Nissan has since been applying it to select models, like the 370Z and the Murano.

Other types of manufacturers have become interested, and now Japanese communications giant NTT DoCoMo has licensed Scratch Shield for their cell phones. As we dig them out of our pockets, purses and bags, mobiles probably take more of a daily beating than we'd allow our $40,000 sports cars to experience.

Alas, the spread of this materials technology is still in its nascent stages, so while Scratch Shield is available on cars as far from Japan as the UK, the self-healing paint will only appear on Japanese-market phones for now.

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Earlier, we spotted RAW COLOR's first project at the Dutch Design Week 2007. The project 100%JUICE demonstrated the power of natural color by extracting "natural ink" from vegetables.

Today, it's worth checking out RAW COLOR No.1, 2 and 3 which demonstrates their continued visual research on vegetables and examination of their internal structures. One of the results is a natural color map categorizing the diversity of vegetables by shades and families.

RAW COLOR is a cooperation between designers Christoph Brach & Daniera ter Haar and demonstrates the often unnoticed beauty of our everyday veggies.

More pictures after the jump!

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Get a Mac! We're not talking about the computer, we mean the ridiculously hot motorcycle designs by TriBeCa-based Carefully Considered, which sounds like an NPR talk show but is in fact a design firm, or a collective, or a consultancy. It's not really clear. Their self-description says "Carefully Considered is an army of one or as tailored as a project requires, with a movable staff of five designers, production artists and thinking folk." But whatever they are, you can check out more of their work here.

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SDWorks is a commercial platform attached to Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Design, with two professors from that school having set the operation up in 2007. Writes Bernat Cuni, a Mediterranean designer based in Hong Kong and affiliated with the school,

SDWorks looks for cool and nice ideas from students, refines them, put them into production and sells the products. Then, the benefits are shared among the student, tutor and university. It is good, a fair way to bring to life the product ideas that are being generated within the school.

...The design and development is done within the university facilities, enriched by its staff's expertise, while the production and sales is powered by the University's network of quality suppliers and professionals.

Their latest project chosen for production is third-year student Cheuk Kee Lai's cool LED Mirror Watch, the surface of which is an ordinary mirror that reveals the time when the user presses a button. (The designer noticed that the need to wear a watch was diminishing, as everyone now carries time-telling cell phones, and thus came up with the additional functionality of a mirror.) Check it out:

The Mirror Watch recently took Silver in the 2009 Spark Awards and won a 2009 China's Most Successful Design Award. Next up: It's going on sale, to be launched next week at Detour, Hong Kong's Business of Design Week outreach program.

thanks bernat!

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One more thing about Boeing's Dreamliner, which is fascinating from a manufacturing perspective: Rather than produce the behemoth at a single plant, Boeing has spread component production out over no less than nine countries (the U.S., the U.K., Canada, France, Italy, Russia, Japan, Australia, and India) with final assembly done Stateside. So how do they get the gi-normous, partially-finished fuselage from Nagoya, Japan to Charleston, South Carolina and then Everett, Washington? By using these beasts:

Those are what Boeing is calling "Dreamlifters," heavily modified 747s purchased from China that have a volume of 65,000 cubic feet. They're seven stories high and swallow more than 52,000 gallons of fuel in their tanks.

Boeing has stated that the Dreamlifters were made purely for transporting Dreamliners and that they will not be manufacturing any for sale. Which is too bad, because you just know that somewhere some oil sheik is looking at this thing going "I have to have one of these! I must!"

via flight story

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Inhabitat's just launched their holiday gift guide (Green Friday?!), and there's a ton of great stuff in here. With categories like Tots, Mom&Dad, Furry Friends, and Heirloom, you are sure to find a forward-looking gift for everyone on your list, and just the browsing will be a great way to move you into the weekend.

Start right here.

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Boeing has announced their much-delayed 787 Dreamliner airplane will finally make its maiden flight later this year. It's still just a test flight, meaning customers who have been patiently waiting for the reported 840 orders to be filled will have to continue waiting. The plane is roughly two years behind schedule.

Speaking of two years ago, we found some older concept work BMW Group DesignworksUSA did for the 787 to drum up early interest. The designers came up with a sort of split-level ranch with wings, a plane that a literal high-flyer could live and work in--with nineteen friends in tow.

By dipping into the cargo bay and with the liberal use of staircases, plenty of room has been created for a master bedroom, master bath with freestanding tub, a conference area, guest suites, a large-screen movie theater, a gourmet kitchen, office space, a cocktail bar, you name it. There's even one area with a glass-bottomed floor so you can look in on your car (a BMW, natch) stowed belowdecks. The only thing this plane is missing is a room to torture James Bond in.

via reuters and car body design

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Good news for all you interaction designers out there. The IxDA student competition, culminating at the big IxDA shindig in Savannah, has extended its deadline for submissions until 11:59 PST, December 31st. (Deadline will give you one minute to slap on your New Years hat, grab your champagne, and begin the countdown.)

Also, they've opened up the competition to group/team submissions, but with one small caveat: only one person from a group can represent the group in the Stage 2 of the competition, and become a finalist with a full scholarship to Interaction 10 | Savannah. So start duking it out now!

For more information about the competition, visit http://interaction.ixda.org/student-competition/

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