Label of love

With pretty much anything now just a quick printout away, is there really still a place in the office or at home for the humble label writer? Looking at the Tepra Pro label writer from King Jim — a company mostly known for its colorful binders and filing systems — it becomes apparent that there's something comforting about the old-school charms of a device that devotes all of its efforts to that one task. But the Tepra Pro is indeed a tool of the modern age, with the aesthetically pleasing cube opening up to reveal an LCD screen and tiny keyboard — used to write your message — using an amazing array of colored labels to print on. The Tepra Pro series includes two models: the self-contained SR600 label writer (available in white or red) at ¥24,000, and the SR3700P label printer, which plugs into your Windows or Mac computer via a USB cable, for ¥21,000.

www.kingjim.co.jp/new_tepra/index.html

The price we pay for the digital paradise in which we live? Wires, wires and then more wires, all conspiring to create the ugliest of webbings in and around our living space, as our treasured electronics get juiced up. Thankfully, designer Takafumi Nemoto presents a solution with the Lessev mobile station. The container helps hide all those unsightly chargers and cables within, with all of your digital devices — anything from your mobile handset to your portable audio player — resting on top of the silicon cover (available in light brown or gray), with only a slight opening that lets the connecting cables through. The Lessev, produced by king of Tokyo select shops H Concept, retails for ¥5,000.