Using a whiteboard (or dry erase board) has become a familiar activity for creative or academic types. Similarly, carrying around a notebook or two or three to jot down notes and sketches is a time-honored tradition. A group of brilliant Canadian inventors figured out a way to combine the two into something that they call Writerase.

The Writerase line of products (the company likes to call them “a forest”) take the best parts of whiteboards and notebooks and smoosh them together. Whiteboards are easily used and re-used, but aren’t super-portable. Notebooks can go anywhere, but can really only be used until you’ve filled up every page and then they have to be retired.

Writerase notebooks are composed of paper sheets coated in thin but resilient plastic. Most dry erase pens work with the notebooks. As you come up with brilliant ideas that really need to be jotted down immediately, you can write them down like you would in any other notebook. They’ll stay put until you decide to erase them.

When you’ve executed your evil plans or typed out the masterpiece you wrote in your Writerase notebook, you can erase it all and use it again. That’s what makes the line of reusable notebooks so awesome: they don’t require you to buy a new one and use up more natural resources every time you run out of space. The project’s Kickstarter campaign raised far more than its modest goal in just four days, which we hope means that we’ll be able to stock up on these awesome notebooks soon.

The post Write, Erase, Repeat: Reusable Never-Ending Notebook first appeared on Gajitz.

(image via: thetourist)

We take our laptops for granted these days, but at one time the closest thing to a portable computer was a portable typewriter. The classic Olivetti Valentine portable typewriter was a chic and enviable accessory in the 1960s and 1970s. Designed by Ettore Sotsass, the Valentine was stylish, functional and – for a typewriter – damn sexy. Sotsass’ idea that a design should be functional, attractive and emotionally appealing has inspired many designers to take risks and make create concepts that look fantastic while still filling a tangible need. The popularity of this particular model has skyrocketed recently, with manual typewriter enthusiasts snapping them up on eBay and in secondhand stores.

If you can’t get your hands on an authentic Valentine, do what a design team in Austria did: design a laptop to look like the classic typing machine. A modern laptop with the same sleek lines, boxy shape and alluring color would be awesome enough on its own, but they took it a step further. This new design includes a pull-out keyboard and a compact rolling screen. Without the constraints of a rigid screen, the screen no longer places size and shape limitations on the overall product. This notebook, if ever produced, would undoubtedly be a bestseller among those who value form just as much as – if not more than – function.

The post Be Mine: Laptop Concept Pays Homage to Classic Valentine first appeared on Gajitz.