Homes and Gardens

Industrial Facility, set up in 2002, is a partnership between Sam Hecht and Kim Colin, with Ippei Matsumoto as senior designer. Their clever, thoughtful and visually understated products already sell in Muji, and have been exhibited at the British Council, the Design Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 2007, they won the prestigious German International Forum (iF) Gold Award (for design) for the third consecutive time, for their work with Epson.

Their winning product, the LaCie Little Disk, backs up/stores information from your computer's hard drive in an appealing little box the size of a cigarette packet. It will hold up to 250 GB of information, which is plenty for the average user, and comes in two sizes, 1.8 inches (storage potential: 60 GB), and 2.5 inches (80, 120, 160 or 250 GB). Other devices on the market that perform similar tasks are bulky and require attached transformers and cable, making them awkward to use and difficult to carry around. Little Disk eliminates the need for a transformer, has an ingenious pull-out cable, and its disk drive (internal moving part) has been redesigned to conform to its trim shape. Technical innovations make it easy to use and to adapt to your own needs and computer; we particularly liked its speed in retrieving information.

Externally, this invaluable tool for the digital age is made of a hard, smooth, durable plastic (ABS), and has a surface with no painted coatings or visible external switches or sockets. Its appearance, say the designers, was informed by powder compacts and lipstick cases.