Live@ICFF: Neo-Utility

The Brooklyn-based distributor didn’t have too much new to show since we caught up with them at the Gift Fair last February, but there were still a couple of items that caught our eye. For instance: We’ve long been fans of Anything‘s plastic desktop accessories (like the scissors and tape dispenser pictured above); now the design studio is planning to launch a bamboo collection, which will include an elegant magnetic board (above, center; the full collection comes out in September). Also new from Anything: a minimalist letter opener with a pleasing weight and a simple kinked angle, a welcome relief from the phony ornateness usually found in the product.

And from IDEA International, Neo-Utility was showing this new hybrid-solar watch by the Japanese designer Shin Azumi. In many solar-powered watches, the photovoltaic cell is disguised from view; here it is a prominent feature of the design. “[It] shows my expectations and respect for solar power as a technology that creates a clean source of energy,” Azumi writes on his Web site.