Keep on Turnin’ is a minimal stereo system by German designer Valerie Hebel that combines analog and digital music in one sleek item. The all-in-one arrangement includes a turning table, CD player and an iPod docking station. It even has a cool colourful storage compartment for your vinyls. Thanks to its elegant appearance, Keep on Turnin’ does not look like a piece of technology, but rather makes an aesthetic statement in the space it occupies. Here is how the designer describes it: Listening to vinyl is a way of life: the gentle lowering of the needle, the uniform rotation of the plate, the characteristic cracking during the playback, is a celebration of music. Keep on Turnin’ is a stereo system that brings back the pleasure of music. As an alternative to the usually identical and mostly technical design of stereo systems it should find its place as a piece of furniture. It convinces by its sound experience and serves a decorative quality piece of furniture. Check out the video to see the piece in action.

As we get closer to closing 2011, I thought it would be worthwile to re-visit somebody who has been featured on Minimalissimo multiple times for his visionary approach in design that never goes of out style: German industrial designer Dieter Rams. Already in the early 1980s and as a chief designer for Braun, Dieter Rams was aware and concerned by the state of the material world around him. Surrounded by what he called “an impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noise” he created ten principles of good design that I found appropriate to feature before we enter 2012, another year full of creativity and design. 1. Good design is innovative    2. Good design makes a product useful    3. Good design is aesthetic    4. Good design helps us to understand a product    5. Good design is unobtrusive    6. Good design is honest    7. Good design is durable    8. Good design is consequent to the last detail    9. Good design is concerned with the environment    10. Good design is as little design as possible With Mr. Rams’ words in mind, I hope you find it inspiring to either design or appreciate the design that is Good Design.

This minimalist bluetooth mp3 speaker is designed by Lim Hyun-Taik from Korea, currently living and working in The Netherlands as a creative director and product designer. The Sound Pot is a very nice sculpture, made out of porcelain, and also a nice piece of audio equipment handling the user interaction in a very smart way. You can turn on the music by using the knob and place the speaker on its side. By rolling the speaker gently to one direction or the other you can control the volume. And when you have listened for a while and you want to turn off the music? Just take the knob and turn its face down.

The Buddha Machine is nothing more or less than a little plastic ambient music generator that looks like a transitor radio. It can play nine digitally encoded music loops, created by experimental music duo FM3. Apart from the volume dial, the Buddha Machine has just one button, that allows the listener to switch from one loop to another – but that’s the extent of user control over the experience. The New York Times dubbed this the ‘anti-iPod factor‘: the relief of not having to make a choice in a world awash with entertainment and self-expression options. I dig that.