Dream gadgets

Product designers take note – the most popular request for a new design gadget in 2008 is a device to pause time. We asked you what’s on your wish list for this year, and here are some of your nominations

Patrick Baglee, EHS Brann
I once asked Alan Fletcher to name his most valuable piece of studio equipment. ‘My head,’ he replied. A Lamy pen with limitless refills, two dozen Muji notebooks and a pair of Tricker’s should set me up for the year.

Vince Frost, Frost Design
A giant pause button.

Mark Delaney, Nokia
A brand new bike from Condor Cycles. Maybe something like their Bivio flat bar: a bespoke utilitarian urban bike, perfect for my daily commute to Nokia’s new Soho studios. The 45-minute ride provides the opportunity to get my thoughts in order for the day, while the ride home helps clear my mind of the day’s rigours. It’s amazing how solutions to tricky problems just pop into your mind, stimulated by the combination of exercise and tricky London traffic.

Erik Spiekermann, Spiekermann Partners
First on my list would be another two hours a day. In other words, the clock would stop at midnight for two hours before advancing. That way I could get lots of extra reading in, watch the occasional movie or actually write to people, instead of just dropping them electronic notes. If that should prove too difficult (I don’t really know which Government department would be responsible for such innovation), then I’ll settle for the iPhone 2.0 – I’ll be there when it is introduced at MacWorld in San Francisco on 14 January.

Nat Hunter, Airside
We’re after the Wacom Cintiq 12WX. It’s a screen that you draw directly on to with a pressure-sensitive pen. We have a bigger desktop version of it in the studio, and it transforms the way we draw. Now we want the portable version so we can put our feet up.

John Spencer, Spencer du Bois
The thing at the top of my New Year wish list is an all-singing, all-dancing, market-leading, future-facing, drum-banging, box-ticking, hit-the-ground-running, reality-checking, circle-squaring, envelope-pushing, touchy-feely, tits-out, bullshit detector. Tell it straight in 2008.

Daisy de Villeneuve, illustrator
A box set of 156 Prismacolor felt-tip double-ended art markers, in a variety of amazing colours; Peacock Blue, Mahogany Red, Green Tea and Magenta. And some black Sharpies. These both come from the US, so I normally get a relative to FedEx them over to me.

Matt Baxter, 300million
Where’s the jetpack we were promised? I remember Judith Hann saying on Tomorrow’s World that we’d all have one by now, but my home-to-work conveyance is still distinctly bike-shaped. Not only would a jetpack help with the commute, but off-site meetings would be a cinch, especially those international ones. Having said all that, there was clearly a design flaw: the smell of singed trouser leg wouldn’t go down too well with our more demanding clients.

Lewis Allen, Portland Design
Please can we have a Wattson? It’s a clever and elegant piece of kit that reduces both carbon emissions and electricity bills. It would show us how much electricity we’re using, and visually prompt us to switch off all those chargers, computers, copiers and lights.

Matthew Hilton, furniture designer
An iMac with the highest spec, Solidworks 3D design software and a Nikon D300 with a 17-55mm/f2.8 lens.

Clive Grinyer, Orange France Telecom
Rather than receive, I would like to give everyone an iPhone for one day. Then I would take it away from them, so they would see how technology can work, wonder why we’ve put up with such rubbish for years and create merry hell until everyone else designs better stuff.

Jon Forss and Kjell Ekhorn, Non-Format
A new studio in London, and a new studio in Minneapolis, US. Maybe even some new designers to work with. And two new kettles.

Rob Ryan, illustrator
I have real problems keeping up with what jobs I’ve got on. I print them out on A4 sheets, staple them together and put them on my desk – but they end up underneath everything else. Having watched many a celebrity chef TV show, I’m impressed by the way they place all the orders up in a line in the kitchen so they can clearly see what they have to cook, and then get rid of them when they’re done. I think it’s called a ‘check rack’. I would like this above my desk, but since this is in the middle of the room, it would have to hang from the ceiling. It may sound pathetic, but I am convinced that this is exactly what I need to make my life perfect.

Luke Pearson, Pearson Lloyd
A third eye, a third arm.

Mark Blamire, Blanka
I’d like to book a few life drawing classes for 2008, as I have lost the operator’s manual for my pencil and I could do with brushing up on the old craft. I would also like a device that pauses time so I can get on top of my workload. However, I don’t think anything will compare to last year’s Christmas present – a shiny new office at the bottom of my garden, which has made life much simpler.

Jonathan Ellery, Browns
I would like a dog. One with a wet nose, who’ll eat pizza and watch the telly with me on Sunday evenings.