DIY music box design lets users compose their own nostalgic melodies in three simple steps

The Make Your Own Music Box is a music box design from Kikkerland Design that lets users compose their own melodies for the music box to play.

There’s nothing quite so nostalgic as a music box. One look inside grandma’s old jewelry box that plays “Over The Rainbow,” or even at big coin-operated music boxes in train stations and bars can bring us back before our time. Music boxes have been around for centuries, but they’ve managed to hold onto their charm. Since 1922, Kikkerland Design has been producing toys and memorabilia to fascinate the masses and bring us back to simpler times. Today, they’ve released a music box that allows users to compose their own tune.

Designer: Kikkerland Design

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Kikkerland Design’s Make Your Own Music Box Kit comes with everything you might need to compose your own tune and listen back to it. Complete with strips of lined music paper, each user has the opportunity to make their own music by hole punching the music paper with melodies and harmonies for the music box to capture and reproduce. Describing the process, Kikkerland design notes, “The easy to use Music Box hole puncher allows you to create your own melodies on lined paper strips and play them on the mechanism provided.”

To help get the ball rolling, Kikkerland Design provides the sheet music for “Happy Birthday,” allowing users to get a feel for what melodies look and sound like on the sheet music and music box. Along with that, the Make Your Own Music Box comes with a music box hole punch, sheet music strips, and a music box mechanism that works together to play newly composed music. Users simply hole punch a sheet music strip with a melody and insert the strip into the music box before winding it up and hearing it in real-time.

The post DIY music box design lets users compose their own nostalgic melodies in three simple steps first appeared on Yanko Design.

House of fresh and inventive everyday products, Kikkerland Design needs a product designer!

Coined Kikkerland, as an endearment to the fact that it always rains in Holland, Dutch designer Jan van der Lande launched the company as a one-man operation in NYC in 1992. The 27-year-old company is a hub for rampant creativity, where even the most utilitarian gadgets become a delightful discovery. Since it’s conception, the folks at Kikkerland Design have traveled the world in search of original designs for things that can make life more enjoyable, be it clever things to intrigue you, smart things that make everyday tasks easier, and gentle things that make you feel happier when you use them! It’s no wonder that Kikkerland Design continues to offer the world’s largest collection of ingenious items combining form, function, and delight in equal parts. You can find them in thousands of stores around the world, including museum and specialty shops. Or you can just stay at home. Because if it’s inventive, witty, and smartly designed, Kikkerland Design will bring it to you. Just for the fun of it.

Kikkerland’s Hammer Multi-Tool takes your regular claw harmer and put’s nine additional tools into it including; a flat head screwdriver, bottle opener, reamer, saw blade, file, knife blade, Phillips head screwdriver, and a handle that on pulling open, turns the hammer into a plier/wire-cutter!

The Opportunity

Kikkerland is the world’s leading gift brand. With renowned designer collaborations and a strong in-house design team, Kikkerland creates a wide range of products that make life more enjoyable. They’re looking for a talented product designer to join their team.

Responsibilities

– Develop a range of innovative products in a wide range of materials including wood, plastic, metal, and fabric.
– Develop accurate 2D and 3D product specifications and drawings, accounting for cost, ergonomics, safety, and manufacturing limitations.
– Build prototypes when necessary.
– Review and provide comments on manufacturing drawings and overseas-made prototypes.
– Communicate extensively throughout the design process with Graphics designers, Product Development and Quality control, Marketing/Sales teams.

Requirements

– BFA in Industrial or Product Design.
– 3+ years of consumer/Gift product design experience.
– Knowledge of a wide variety of materials and manufacturing processes, especially plastics.
– Creative problem solving and analytical skills.
– Strong understanding of the Kikkerland brand and our playful aesthetic.
– Expert knowledge of Solidworks/Rhino and ability to render organic forms.
– Knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, including Illustrator.
– Must be the team player and the ability to interact professionally in a business setting.

Location

New York, NY

Click here to Apply Now!


Check out all the latest design openings on Yanko Design Job Board

A ‘smashing’ multi-tool!

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Ten tools come together to occupy the space one tool would take. Kikkerland’s Hammer Multi-tool turns your regular claw-hammer and put an additional nine tools into it, making it even more useful than you’d initially hoped. Fitted right inside the hammer’s wooden handle are a flat head screwdriver, bottle opener, reamer, saw blade, file, knife blade, phillips head screwdriver and a handle that on pulling open, turns the hammer into a plier/wire-cutter!

With its light-colored wooden handle, the hammer looks and feels great to hold. Unlike most hammers, the Kikkerland Hammer Multi-Tool uses the mass of the handle to store as many different, versatile tools as possible… and the part where it transforms into a plier/wire-cutter? Sheer genius!

Designer: Kikkerland

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The pen that captures ideas and holds pages

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Whether you’re reading a book or writing one, the Kikkerland Writersblok Bookmark Pen can be quite a handy little instrument. Its elliptical shape lends to easy gripping, while also making it rest nicely between pages, working as both pen and bookmark.

The Writersblok Bookmark Pen comes in a nice black body with an elliptical cross-section that then transitions at the end to a circular one, making sure it doesn’t slip through your pages. Its simplistic style and dual-purpose nature make it quite a pleasant product to own and use. Our only complaint? The lack of a retracting pen-nib.

Designers: Gerhardt Kellermann & Ana Relvao.

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Creative Crustacean Contraptions!

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There are a handful of companies that make products playful, exciting, and emotive. Kikkerland is easily one of them. It has an inventive style, and its products are designed to be lovable!

Take for instance the Crab. Most people look at Swiss Knives and see multi-tools, but not Kikkerland! The Crab puts a visual twist on the multi-tool, transforming it entirely into a crustacean in a way that seems almost natural, and something you’d expect from a child’s mind.

The Crab comes with a beechwood body and 6 multitools, comprising a pair of scissors, a bottle opener, a 3/16 flat head screwdriver, a can opener, a mini knife, and a rope saw. Fold them up to make the multi-tool look compact, like a meditating crab. The minute you need a helping hand (or claw), unfold the crab’s many arms and it’ll show you just how useful it is!

Designer: Kikkerland

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EDC for stargazers!

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The Kikkerland Telescope Compass Keychain may not give you the best image of the Blue Blood Moon that we’re expecting to see, but it’s loads better than using your phone camera to zoom into the moon to get a good look. The tiny little contraption comes with toy-like proportions, and fits around your keychain, opening up to become a pretty neat/cute telescope you can use outdoors. Fold the telescope back to its closed position and you’ve got a tiny compass resting on the top, giving you pretty much all the tools you need to stargaze when you’re out in the open. To sweeten the deal, the keychain comes even with two LEDs, squeezing three rather handy tools into something that’s literally half the size of your thumb. How positively enchanting!

Designer: Kikkerland

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Everything at your bedside!

The bed is a magical place where muscles refuse to work. I’ve actually (and I’m not proud of it) slept in the heat because I was too comfy in bed to get up and walk over to my table where the air conditioner’s remote was kept. In fact when I’m in bed, I suddenly feel the need to have a butler who can pass me the TV remote, or my mobile, or a magazine or newspaper.

The Bedside Caddy by Kikkerland isn’t really a butler, but it achieves the same goal. Allows you to keep everything within arm’s reach so you don’t have to ever disrupt your comfy sleeping position to grab the TV remote or a magazine. It sits right off the side of the bed like a little folder, with compartments for your phone, remote, pen and paper, and even magazines and books. Just reach out to the edge of the bed and everything you need is within arm’s access because no one likes attaining that position of highest comfort in bed, just to have to get out of it because you need to grab something from your study table or bookshelf.

The Bedside Caddy comes in a nice gray felt that’s soft and expandable, allowing you to store a good deal of stuff in it. It tucks right between your mattress and the bed making sure the caddy never slips out with your stuff in it. When not in use, it folds into a nice flat-pack, allowing you to even store it underneath your mattress!

Designer: Kikkerland

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Solar-powered Edison Light Is a Bright Idea

Celebrate one of the world’s greatest inventors with Kikkerland’s desktop sculpture of Thomas Alva Edison. Not only does it look like man behind some of the earliest electrical inventions, but it actually lights up too.

Tiny Edison stands there on your desk, light bulb in hand, ready to provide a splash of accent light to your space. The bulb gets its power from a solar panel on Edison’s back, but the way he’s holding the bulb in his hand actually reminds me of some of rival Nikola Tesla’s wireless electricity experiments. On the other hand, this 7″ tall dude runs on DC power – which Edison championed, rather than Tesla’s AC system.

No matter who you stood with in the Current War, you’ll be a winner with Tiny Edison lighting up your desk. You can grab one now over at Amazon for $25. Oh and speaking of Edison vs. Tesla, I couldn’t help but post this…

Barbecue in a briefcase

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Strictly in terms of size, the BBQ Suitcase by Kikkerland is no larger than an iPad Pro, if you were to factor in the thickness, I’d compare it to an encyclopedia. Yet it fits a fully functional grill into its rather neat and compact footprint! Perfect for carrying around in your car or even on your person (it’ll fit into a backpack pretty easily), the BBQ Suitcase comes in stainless steel and opens up from a tiffin-box to a completely capable grill enough to barbecue food for two.

We’ve seen a few portable grills before. If you remember the Notebook Charcoal Grill, it’s still the world’s slimmest portable grill, but the caveat is that it’s still pretty large even when folded, and can’t be carried in a backpack. The BBQ Suitcase feels natural to carry. It is, honestly, designed a lot like a lunch-box, and a good thing too, because you can prepare some rather stellar lunches on it!

Designed ultimately for convenience, the portable barbecue comes with a kickstand to give it stability, and even an ash catcher that allows the product to stay mess-free. Once closed, a rather neat handle+lock allows you to secure it, carry it around, and stow it away, for another beautiful cookout!

Designer: Kikkerland

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This Log Pillow Isn’t as Firm as It Looks

I was just thinking about picking up some new pillows for our bed, since I think I need something with a little more support. While a good firm pillow can help you sleep better, I don’t think that sleeping on a log is particularly good for your head and neck. That is, unless it’s this plush log pillow.

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The Log Pillow is made by Kikkerland, and it looks like the perfect place to catch a nap while lying on your couch, bed, or in your sleeping bag in the woods. Thankfully, it’s not filled with hardwood, but instead it’s packed with the type of polystyrene beads you’d find in a bean bag.

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It measures about 15″ long and 6.5″ in diameter, and sells for $18(USD) over at Fredflare. Or you could just go buy some firewood and try and put your head on that.