The room

Cool design

Things that are beautifully designed, and why.

Arrow keys to move along it

An Ooni pizza oven standing on a wooden garden table, its chimney rising from a steel wedge of a body.

Ooni pizza oven

Something about this looks so futuristic, and it’s just an oven, which is technology that is thousands of years old! I also love the Ooni brand, as they basically reinvented an entire category and made prosumers want to buy cool furniture for their garden. I’ve followed Ooni for a long time and actually wish they’d move beyond just pizza ovens and go horizontal into all types of garden equipment, and eventually kitchen bits as well.

A plain white bone china mug with coffee pouring into it.A black plastic mug warmer covered in buttons and a small display.

Glowstone smart mug

I was looking for a smart mug to keep my coffee hot (I love a piping hot black coffee). So many of these products require you to download an app so you can set temperatures, timers, and who knows what else. Overengineered to hell. They typically don’t feel like a mug either, being metal or plastic.

This mug has no buttons, no options. Just plug and play - place the mug on the charger when you’re done, and that’s it. The mug detects when there is hot liquid in the mug, and does the rest - genius! It’s also fine bone china, so looks and feels like a completely standard mug. Beautifully simple.

On the right is an example of a smart mug designed by a product team who don’t really care about design - look at the number of buttons.

A Dyson bladeless desk fan, a bare metal ring on a cylindrical base.

Dyson desk fan

Such a stunning product to look at. Yes there is incredible engineering involved here to have a bladeless fan, but just looking at this product, it is created with love.

A Nest thermostat, one dial showing a single large number on an orange field.A beige wall thermostat with a small blue screen and eight buttons and switches.

Nest thermostat

No buttons, a simple screen with one number. A masterclass in simplicity - the founder of Nest is Tony Faddell who was VP of the iPod division at Apple, which I think is why there’s such a focus on design.

Compare this to a traditional thermostat, full of buttons and confusing symbols.

A visual timer, a square dial whose remaining minutes are shown as a block of colour.

Visual timer

I actually bought this from Amazon for a tenner. I LOVE the analog nature of this. You turn the knob to set the timer, and the timer fills with colour. Such a beautiful representation of how much time is left. A job very well done.

A grid of Stripe Press hardback covers, each a different solid colour.

Stripe Press books

This is weird one to be on this list, but the designers who craft Stripe’s books have done such a beautiful job. Each books is work of art, with a beautiful hardback + cover. For some reason book design is just ignored, but Stripe take such care and attention, and you can tell as soon as you touch the book.

The Stripe Press website, showing book spines lined up like a bookshelf.

Stripe Press website

Again, an absolute masterclass in design. It makes browsing a website FUN. Stripe press is a book company, so the website ONLY shows books, giving the appearance of a bookshelf. You scroll to show more books, and can click on the book to learn more. Stripe, thank you.

press.stripe.com

A NOCO jump starter, a small black slab with one button and two clamps.A large yellow and red jump starter covered in dials, switches and warning labels.

NOCO car jump start

Such a beautifully simple product. All you need to do is place the red clamp on the positive, black on the negative, and press the on button. So simple, and easy. It’s also the size of a small book.

On the right is a gross over-engineered jump starter that is full of buttons and options. This product team misunderstood that people need a jump start when they have a flat battery, and need ONE thing to be really easy - JUMP START MY CAR! Noco fully understood this.

A pink dog water bottle whose cap opens out into a drinking bowl.

Poppy’s water bottle

This is another Chinese built product, but i love the careful thought for the user. It’s a water bottle for dogs, and when you click the dispense button, water flows into the bowl portion of the bottle, creating a makeshift bowl that Poppy can drink from. If she doesn’t fancy a drink (which is often because she is fussy), you can then press the button and the water flows back into the ‘tank’ portion. So simple, and a super clear focus on user experience.

An Oura ring, a plain brushed metal band with no markings.The Oura ring charger, a small pebble with a single post to drop the ring onto.

Oura Ring

A leaf out of the Apple playbook. Just a simple, high quality, weighty ring, with no buttons. Even the packaging was beautiful. The charger is also beautifully designed, you just drop the ring on to the knob. Beautiful.

A compact Apple Watch charger that plugs straight into a USB-C port.

Apple watch charger

Another Chinese built product. A charger for my Apple Watch. The designer has really understood that Apple watch users will probably be by their Mac when wanting to charge, and noone wants long trailing cables hanging around their desk. This simple design plugs into the USBC port, and your watch sits on top. Simple + clean.

A Zippo lighter standing open, its brushed steel lid folded back.

Zippo lighter

Easily the coolest lighter in the world. I love the angles, the neatness, the smooth action when you flick the lighter open. It just shows that even the most functional items, with care, love, and thought, can be beautiful.

The Deep Sea website, a lone fish lit in black water beside a depth reading.

Deep Sea website

The most incredible website i’ve seen. Incredible attention to detail. Explores the boundary of what a website can be, and basically turns it into a game, without any instructions.

neal.fun/deep-sea

A Tesla interior seen from the back seat, the dashboard bare except for one central screen.

Tesla’s dashboard

The simplicity is beautiful and must have been so hard to do, and taken so long to perfect. Not a button anywhere. I’m sure they would have eliminated the wing mirrors if they could have, i’m guessing it was a car safety thing. Also shout out to the tesla door handles.

A silver Audi R8 parked among trees, low and wide with its side blade panel.

Audi R8

Here’s a game - take a look at the picture and guess what year this car was designed?

You’d probably say 2025, 2026, right?

It was first launched in 2007, so designed multiple years before that. Truly way beyond its time, and a true masterpiece. Stunning, stunning car.

A JosephJoseph kitchen spoon, a single sculpted curve of black and grey.

Anything JosephJoseph

Look how they’ve made these kitchen spoons look like. A truly incredible team, and a brand identity + design system that goes across their entire range. They are like the Apple of homewear.

Cinque Terre, Liguria

Translates to ‘5 towns’ - a stunning coastline of five villages. Over the centuries, people have built terraces on the hills right up to the cliffs that overlook the Ligurian Sea, so you can’t physically drive between the towns, you have to hike.