Pinch that nasty green stuff away!

There’s a reason why this fruit is one of the world’s favorites. The little green leaves can be plucked swiftly and reliably with Bea. The fruit stays firm and whole and can be prepared straightaway for serving up delicious deserts – and scoring! What would the summer be without strawberries? Get a bunch and enjoy them either straight up to your mouth or as strawberry lemonade. Summer hello! We are waiting.

More info: Strawberry Pincher

No, not a bottle opener but a banana peeler. From the awesome company Koziol I got to visit couple of years ago.

It’s time to collar those bananas! Following nature’s own recipe for success, Fips is the ideal peeling tool – especially for children. The little ape will behead a banana, help remove the stringy bits, and even spoon away those unappetizing brown spots.

More info: Banana Opener

- 1 Dollar Fun Galore

Koziol is whipping some great designed products out. Love this little bomb – not recommending to have that in your luggage while traveling.

Bombon easily accommodates an entire ball of packing twine and smoothly unreels it without a hitch. Also ideal for jute, gardening twine or thin ribbons.

More info: Koziol BomBon

- This used to be my playground

After I’d seen Koizol’s shipping area, the nice people from their PR department arranged for me to visit the dungeons where products which are no longer for sale are archived — even some designs from the company’s earliest days. I was shocked about how many products I recognized, without having known they were made by Koziol. Turns out my grandma had half her house decorated with their things.

I could easily have spent a whole day in the archives — it was probably my favorite section of Koziol.

Here are some pictures. Rows and rows of shelves filled with cool things. Random, good stuff.

In the next post, I’ll be blogging about some current Koziol products and introduce you to the man currently behind the magic. Please subscribe to the Random Good Stuff RSS Feed, so you don’t miss it!

- Shop for Koziol products here

Products are shipped world-wide from the town of Erbach in Germany’s lovely Odenwald region. So you can be certain that anything you might order is 100% "Made In Germany".

After the products leave the production hall, they’re manually checked for mistakes and some final touches are applied. Then a little Koziol sticker is placed on most products, they’re packed up for storage and then transferred to the storage halls, where they await shipment.

In the next post I’ll be digging up Koziol’s past and writing about their archives, highlighting some neat products from the first company’s first years. Please subscribe to the Random Good Stuff RSS Feed, so you don’t miss it!

- Shop for Koziol products here

In this post I’ll take you around the production hall where all the plastic magic happens.

The basis of almost everything Koziol produces is recyclable plastic, stored and used in the form of granulates which come in all kind of different colors:

These colorful granulates will be added to the basic (usually white, or clear plastic granulates) material:

Now let’s head over to the production hall:

In the picture above you see the basic white granulate which is mixed with the colored ones, in the next picture:

To produce violet colored cups, for example:

Every plastic ejection machine has sample products so the worker can see how the final item will look like:

Here are some more random images from the production process of Koziol’s fantastic plastic items:

In the next post I’ll blog about their shipping department, so don’t miss it. Please subscribe to the Random Good Stuff RSS Feed.

- Shop for Koziol products here

Every Koziol product is first produced in small scale on a 3D printer before it goes into production.

What I like about Koziol besides their products is their company philosophy. They could easily move production to China to increase profits, but they’ve stayed true to Odenwald, Germany, and have given a lot back to the region which helped them become a successful company.

Most everything is designed and produced in Erbach. Some designers are hired out of house, and they also have given design students a chance to have their work produced.

Here are some images of Koziol’s molding forms:

Koziol stores all their molding forms right next to the production hall. So in the case of a big order, they can run & grab the necessary form without delay.

The forms have recently been cataloged to make finding them faster.

The molding forms which Koziol users are very complex, since they have to produce sometimes very delicate pieces.

The machines which produce these kind of forms:

Once a form has been built it needs to be maintained well, because forms will malfunction after they’ve been in use for a while.

As an example of a malfunction, this little bunny has nasty lines on his sides:

The bunny was created by this molding form:

When something like this happens, the workers have to resolve the issue by hand:

Next, the Koziol production hall — where the magic happens. Don’t miss it! Please subscribe to my RSS Feed.

- Shop for Koziol products here

Most of you probably know that I’m a photographer. But these days I do more blogging than actually taking pictures, so I decided to assign myself a photo documentary about Koziol.

Koziol? Even if you’ve never heard of this company, based in Germany’s lovely Odenwald, you’ve definitely seen their products. For example, the vegetable cleaning brush is a design hit across the globe:

Cute, functional designs of everyday products is what Koziol’s known for. But that’s not the full story… Koziol started out by designing and creating elephant tusk pieces, as you’ll see in some of the images below.

I grew up close to their manufacturing grounds.  As a child, I would fantasize about what the inside of the factory might look like, every time we drove by.

So a couple of months ago I decided to ask Koziol if they would allow me inside their headquarters, for a photo shoot. To my surprise, they agreed!  And the invitation email came directly from their president, Stephan Koziol.

Over the next couple days, I’ll be blogging about my time there. Subscribe to the RSS Feed if you want to make sure that you won’t miss a post.

Here are some of those early Koziol tusk designs:

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Continue Reading: Koziol – Design and Molding Forms

- Shop for Koziol products here