DoCoMo unveiled a very nice pair of wood-encased mobile phones a few days ago. The prototypes developed by Sharp and Olympus are made from cypress trees that have been selectively cut from ecologically sustainable forests. The product, sweetly named “Touch Wood,” is part of the more trees campaign that was started by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto back in 2007. The campaign is aimed at maintaining and replanting forest in Japan.
With the rise of the Mori Girl (forest girl) trend, not to mention increased public concern for the environment, we can see more natural products coming out of the woodwork. Here's a few that are already available:
- More trees is also behind a nice wooden 1 GB USB stick. It might be saving the environment but at ¥6,825 you won’t be saving your pennies.
- Nippon Style Project make a handmade wooden keyboard that hopefully doesn’t warp if you spill your coffee over it.
- While digital wooden clocks have been around for a few years, we dig this one is from designer Koji Iwasaki.
- Lastly and possibly the most obvious candidate for a wood finish is the digital photo frame.
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