10 of the best cardboard gadgets

Scanbox

US$15 kickstarter.com
Most of us scan a handful of things every year – so why waste deskspace with a bulky old scanner? This Kickstarter project provides a far neater and cheaper alternative: made of sturdy laminated cardboard, it unfolds to form a frame (held together by magnets). Put your document underneath, place your smartphone on the top and take a photo – hey presto, you’ve got a scan in seconds.

Weltunit Papercrafts

£TBC weltunit.com
Weltunit’s superbly simple stands for the iPad and iPhone are made from laser-cut cardboard (running on carbon-free energy, natch), the idea being that, when you replace your iOS device with the new version, you won’t have to worry about selling or otherwise disposing of an expensive plastic stand: just chuck it in the recycling and spend a few quid on a new one.

Amarillo2 clock

£TBC shop.tenndo.com
New York-based Tenndo is a studio that promotes Colombian design abroad, and currently it’s doing that through the Amarillo2, a beautiful cardboard clock. Sadly the shop is under construction at the time of writing, so there’s no option to buy.

HP cardboard desk

£N/A hp.com
Not a product you can actually buy unfortunately, this desk was designed in Singapore as part of a promotional drive for HP’s Z1 Workstation. Coming packed flat and user-assembled, it’s able to support up to 30kg of stuff and even has demarcated “zones” for the Z1’s components.

Recompute A8

£TBC recomputepc.om
From cardboard computer desks to cardboard computers. Well, the case anyway. Recompute’s PCs are clad in flame-retardant corrugated cardboard and can be upgraded (from a pretty swanky base level) prior to purchase. The 2012 model isn’t available in the UK at present, but last year’s model can be shipped to the UK.

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