Cutesy Little Designs

Because every day needs a little bit of spunk, we’ve picked out our favorite oddities of the moment to share. Functional or not, there’s no reason design shouldn’t make you smile once in awhile. Here are our top four cutesies of the moment.
Cutesy 1) Emotibles has the most unique iPod accessory we’ve seen so far. These little doohickies look like a caps key crossed with a bag of tropical Skittles. Do they have a function? Sure they do (if fashion accessory counts as a function). They’re Emotibuds, plastic charms that grip your iPod headphones. At $4 a pair, they come in a huge array of stylish colors, and each one has a strange little face based on emoticons. With names like Frisky, Starry-eyed, Brilliant, and Befuddled, there are at least 16 little personalities to jazz up your pod. Also at Emotibles, check out the tees, free wallpaper, and custom ichat avatars.

Cutesy 2) If you ever thought geeks have no style, you’ve obviously never seen Mimo Bots. Perhaps marketed towards those of us who can’t live without storage sticks or perhaps geared towards those who just like nifty looking gagets (USB what?), the Mimo Bot has more personality than anything you’ve ever plugged in. Designed by toy studio vs consumer electronics brand Mimoco, these are USB flash drives with soul and style. The Mimo Bots run the full gamut from fairy to monster, depending on what mood your electronics normally take. Data storage has never had such attitude.
Cutesy 3) This might be the least functional of the batch, but who could resist? It’s Mr Tofu Robot! Apparently served fresh in a sealed package, Mr Tofu Robot comes from a favorite store of ours, Spicy Brown. Although we primarily like Spicy for their apparel, if you’re in the market for tofu gone gizmo, they’ve got you covered.
Cutesy 4) And finally, if you don’t Google, you should. Yes, iGoogle. The web dominators have several options for those search savvy followers who may get bored with the monotony of white day after day. We like the seasonal theme for our iGoogle. If office work has you down, give it a try. Functional? Yes. Efficient? Not so much. Office work is now more distracting than ever with customizable news bars, tips, horoscopes, and jokes. However, short of a coffee break, that may be exactly what you need.