For Casamania this year, Philadelphia-based designer Josh Owen debuted SOS, the veritable Swiss Army knife of stools. Made of lightweight 100 percent recyclable polyethylene, the seat features curved handles on either side for securing wine glasses or cups, a rimmed top that can be used as a tray, and a hollow inner core; turn the thing over and use it as a super-sturdy indoor/outdoor planter or vase. Or you can, you know, sit on it. The multi-tasking stool was recently admitted to the permanent collection at Paris’s Centre Georges Pompidou and is available for sale at Unica Home. www.joshowen.com

RISD grad Joe Gebbia’s first product was CritBuns, a dimpled rubber cushion that offered respite to design students enduring butt-wrenching crits. That same demographic might benefit from the designer’s latest offering as well: For San Francisco–based Citizen: Citizen, Gebbia created Untitled, a series of blank white sketchbooks in the guise of limited-edition art objets. (Possible uses may include penning secret hate mail to those exacting profs.) Gebbia used the idea of a galley proof—the test book created prior to printing to gauge everything from the fineness of paper stock to the quality of binding—and turned it into the object itself. The result is an elegant series of different sized books, spiral- or perfect-bound, unmarked except for a library card–like slip tucked inside the cover to describe the project’s intent: “By generating only a single book, it subverts mass production practice and becomes a craft object,” Gebbia explains. Available at Citizen: Citizen for $95 a piece. www.citizen-citizen.com

First there was Tivoli, which packed walloping hi-fi sound inside a pert, ’60s-style plastic package. Indonesian designer Singgih Kartono’s Magno, available through Areaware, arrives like an eco-friendly heir to that retrograde throne, with styling that evokes the feel-good ’70s, three sizes all done up in smooth-edged, sustainably harvested, uncoated wood. Kartono, though, isn’t some greenwashed novitiate: The radios are assembled by hand in the designer’s native village of Kandangan, where Kartono helped built a craft-based community to shore up a floundering agricultural economy. And don’t be fooled by the old-school knobs and dials: AM/FM and transistor frequencies are accompanied by a line in for the MP3 player of your choice. Prices start at $200 for the small. www.areaware.com

The first in a series of lights by Italian-born, New York-based architect Sergio Mannino and Dutch-born, New York-based designer Jan Habraken, Lamp OOO!—so named, we'd guess, for the three 10-watt circular bulbs that screw to the underside of a slim top flank—is an aluminum table lamp that can be pulled over the arm of a couch to facilitate easy reading or stacked with books and magazines to keep catalog clutter at bay. While they search for a manufacturer, the designers plan to sell 99 signed, limited-edition lights together with a curated selection of books. Pricing upon request. www.janhabraken.com or www.sergiomannino.com

A limited-edition quilt, pieced and machine-stitched by Connecticut-based designer Denyse Schmidt, is the latest piece commissioned by the Philip Johnson Glass House Foundation, joining a collection that over the years has included cherry-wood stools inked by their nonagenarian designer, Jens Risom, and limited-edition prints of the house itself by Julius Shulman. Schmidt found inspiration in the modernist icon’s “subtle layering of details” and the resulting quilt is a spare, 86x93-inch blanket of ecru cotton, stitched with figure-8s and splashed with a lone band of striated color. Each is hand-signed and available for $1,500. www.philipjohnsonglasshouse.org

When husband-and-wife team Catherine Bailey and Robin Petravic took over Heath Ceramics in 2003, they knew better than to muck around with Edith Heath’s classic, much loved designs. Instead, the couple has focused on small, refined updates to the collection, collaborations with outside designers, and experiments in their Sausalito, California–based factory with new glazes—an area that for years consumed Heath herself. This spring, the company released its Summer 08 Limited Edition, a collection of vases and kitchenware in muted grays and bright glossy yellows. The most radical result of a fascination with new formulas is the Deep Serving Bowl (above), a dip-dyed dish in which the layering of glazes causes a chemical reaction, resulting in a pattern of tiny, blistered dots. A collection in red is forthcoming this holiday season; $75 for the Deep Serving Bowl. www.heathceramics.com

It’s a primordial urge, to build a better fire. For Mike and Maaike, that meant blazing through 27 prototypes of their Baja BBQ Firepack for Design Annex/Lazzari before alighting on the perfect formula. “We had to pay a lot of attention during the burn tests to understand what was working and what wasn’t,” says Mike Simonian of the San Francisco–based duo. “Once you burn a prototype and find that it works, it doesn’t exist anymore!” The final model is a petite, eco-friendly package made from 100 percent recycled, biodegradable paper pulp that instantly lights and burns away, sparking the natural lump charcoal inside without the need for chemicals or lighter fluid; $3.50. www.mikeandmaaike.com

During this year’s ICFF, New York designer Ted Muehling launched Drinking Set no. 279, his first collection with the Austrian glassworks Lobmeyr. Composed of five paper-thin glass shapes, two decanters, and two lanterns, the stemless set reworks standard Muehling embellishments—ladybugs, eyes, flies, and fish—to elegant, Loos-ian effect. Available in clear or amethyst glass, enameled or engraved. Prices range from $72 for an unadorned shot glass to $1,893 for a large decanter with engraved butterflies. Available at Moss. www.lobmeyr.at or www.mossonline.com

Considering the success Target has found with its oddball fashion pairings and limited-edition accessories collections, it was only a matter of time before the Minneapolis-based retailer began courting unconventional product designers as well. In February, Target debuted a furnishings collection by the New York–based DwellStudio; a capsule collection by the doyen of decoupage, John Derian, is forthcoming. Target’s latest collaboration launches in stores today: a limited-edition line of affordable accessories, furniture, and paper goods, all created by Los Angeles–based architect and designer Sami Hayek. A number of Hayek's designs are multifunctional—the base of a task lamp, for example, incorporates drawers and divots in which to stash office supplies—and most include colorful accents meant to recall the designer’s native Mexico. Shown here, a Wall Clock with polychromatic, Pantone-like strips; $24.99. www.target.com

The M in Antonio Citterio’s new bathroom collection for Axor is meant to stand for words like “modernity,” “metropolis,” and “Milan,” the city that’s been home to the Italian architect’s multi-disciplinary workshop for years. But the word that comes immediately to our minds is “mine”—as in can we install one in our homes, like, now? Less blocky and more refined than Citterio’s first collection for the German manufacturer, the collection’s faucets, fillers, and tubs are marked by elegant details like offset handles and tapered spouts. Contact manufacturer for prices. www.hansgrohe-usa.com