By Andrew Liszewski

We don’t cover a lot of architecture here on OhGizmo!, unless it brings something more than just a clever design to the table… err structure. But I felt compelled to share this amazing office space, particularly with those of you stuck in a cubicle environment. I know how soul sucking they can be… I’ve been there… but as you can see there’s always hope that there’s someplace better out there. In this case the ‘someplace’ is the offices of PONS + HUOT, designed by the French firm Christian Pottgiesser Architects.

It’s a beautiful example of how sharing a workspace doesn’t have to involve felt walls and speckled gray desktops. The giant organically shaped wooden desk provides endless real estate for employees to pull up a chair and work, and those who don’t necessarily want to collaborate or be disturbed can take refuge in a series of clear plexiglas domes that provide a bit of solitude. The trees sprouting up through the desks are a nice touch too, but what you can’t see in the handful of photos I’ve included are the meeting rooms cleverly hidden below the desk, so head on over to the Christian Pottgeisser Architect’s website to see the entire gallery of this amazing creation.

[ Christian Pottgiesser Architects - PONS + HUOT ] VIA [ Freshome ]

By Andrew Liszewski

When the Feds are knocking on your door with search warrants, the last thing you want to be doing is feverishly feeding incriminating documents into a paper shredder one sheet at a time. But Swingline, best known for their iconic staplers, has totally got your back with their new Stack-and-Shred office toy.

While it can be operated like your normal cross-cut shredder by feeding pages in one at a time (credit cards too) lifting the lid reveals a compartment that can accept up to 100 pages at once, including staples and paperclips, so you can save yourself the tedium of hand feeding. Now I doubt it’s able to just rip through all 100 sheets in one go, it probably just takes over the feeding duties for you, but it still seems like a useful timesaver. Available now at various online retailers for ~$200-$250.

[ Swingline Stack-and-Shred ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Here’s a surefire way to ensure there’s no doubt you’ll be viewed as anything other than a crackpot when the authorities finally discover your manifesto. Sure, jotting down your thoughts about corporations, government conspiracies (and that waitress at IHOP who totally spit in your pancakes) on a roll of toilet paper or in a phonebook from 1977 is one way to get yourself on the FBI’s radar. But keeping them in a coiled notebook featuring a 3D relief of a handgun, grenade or knife on the cover is a guaranteed one way ticket to surveillance vans sitting outside your apartment all night long.

I guess these Armed Notebooks are supposed to be some kind of commentary on somethingorother, but the irony is completely lost on me. What I do know is that the message, whatever that may be, is carried into the notebooks themselves as each page features unique designs inspired by what’s on the cover. $20 each from MollaSpace.

[ Armed Notebooks ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Despite the fact that everyone’s carrying around sophisticated smartphones these days, Moleskines, Field Notes and other paper-based note taking solutions remain very popular. Tapping away at an on-screen keyboard is still no where near as efficient as pen and paper, so King Jim has created a somewhat low-tech approach to bridge the gap between the iPhone and hand-written notes.

Their SHOT NOTE notepads come in various sizes, and can be used with a regular pen, pencil or whatever you happen to prefer to write with. When a page is complete, it can be archived via the SHOT NOTE iPhone app by simply snapping a photo of it. Each page features markers in the corner which lets the app automatically correct for perspective distortion and ensures it fits perfectly on the iPhone’s screen. In the upper right corner there’s even a sort-of DIY segmented LCD that lets you fill in the number and date of the note, which will be OCR’d by the SHOT NOTE app and used to automagically name and store the page.

The app can then be used to search your notes, in a limited fashion of course since the whole page isn’t OCR’d, or you can simply keep them in the iPhone’s native Photo app or even export them to Evernote. Available starting today the notepads are available in small, medium and large sizes and range in price from about ~$4 (¥320) to ~$7 (¥600).

[ DigInfo - SHOT NOTE - Next-generation Notepad for Smartphones ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Apparently months of sending everything from junk mail to subpoenas to burnt toast through my shredder can really take a toll on its internal mechanisms. And the occasional tune-up with a bit of shredder lubricant is all that’s needed to keep it happily chewing away on all that currency I botched. (Photoshop is sorely lacking in a spell checker.) But why take the time to open up the unit to access those knifey bits when the act of shredding is so much more enjoyable?

The people at Aleratec clearly realize this and so have created these ingenious Lubricant Sheets which you just feed through your shredder and the maintenance work is done! Each sheet, which is composed of sugar pulp and recycled paper, encapsulates a non-toxic, biodegradable, soybean oil-based lubricant so you don’t have to feel bad about tossing the shredded aftermath in with the rest of the recycling. And since it prolongs the life of the shredder, less of them will end up in landfills. Best of all a 12-pack, which will probably last you several years, is available for just $11.99.

[ Aleratec Shredder Lubricant Sheets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While $9.50 is a heck of a lot to pay for just 7 pieces of twisted steel wire, these clever PhotoHangers make it particularly easy to show off photos, postcards or anything worth displaying by hanging on a tack stuck to a corkboard. They also work just like regular paperclips, though something tells me given their premium pricing you won’t be so quick to use one on a TPS report you’re just going to give away. Available from arango.

[ PhotoHanger ] VIA [ BB-Blog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

PlanOn’s raison d’être seems to be the continued pursuit of shrinking the world’s office equipment. They already sell printers and scanners that slip easily into a briefcase, or even a deep jacket pocket, but they’ve really gone above and beyond the call of duty with their new SlimScan scanner.

Not only is it designed to scan smaller documents like business cards and receipts, but it also happens to be roughly the same size as them. Scanning is accomplished by dragging the bottom edge of the SlimScan across your document, which then stores the image in the scanner until you sync it with your PC via its miniUSB port. From there you can either leave it as an image, or use the included OCR software to convert it to copyable/importable text. According to the company the SlimScan is already in production and will be available by the end of January for $119.99.

[ PlanOn ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Who knew that paper shredders could be a thing of beauty? CES 2011 is officially underway, and one of the first things to catch our eye at CES Unveiled was Black & Decker’s new iShred paper shredder. Besides sporting a retro-futuristic design with a glossy white plastic finish, the shredding slot is located on the front in a vertical orientation, which as far as I can tell only serves to keep the whole thing slim.

It’s a cross-cut shredder so all of your private docs end up as little bits of confetti, and everything falls into an easily accessible bin on the bottom which is contoured towards the top making it easier to empty without spilling little bits of paper. The size of the shredder makes me think it’s better suited to larger office environments rather than the home, but since the shredding head is fully enclosed you won’t have to worry about anyone, like little kids, from accidentally getting hurt. $99.99, available now in select stores.

[ Black & Decker iShred Vertical Shredder ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Not only are these IE-TAG sticky notes, designed by Naruse-Inokuma Architects, made of paper recycled from wood construction waste. But they’re also shaped like tiny little houses so you can turn your desk into a miniature neighborhood. The pointed roof design also turns every sticky note into an arrow for pointing out something specific on a page, and as demonstrated above, they just look more aesthetically pleasing when used as bookmarks.

[ IE-TAG Sticky Notes ] VIA [ MoCo Loco ]