In recent years, technological advances have enabled easier and more open connections between the digital and physical worlds. As a result we’ve seen a host of amazing products that have capitalised on the ability to be ‘connected’.

For anyone with an eye on current activity in the technology world, it will come as no surprise that the legendary Nokia 3310 ‘feature’ phone has been relaunched by Finnish tech company HMD. In what has been called a ‘bold’ and ‘clever’ move, the launch comes nearly 17 years after the handset’s initial release. Mobile phone users of a certain age (myself included) may have owned one, and will almost certainly be aware of – or wasted many hours playing (myself included) – the now cult game Snake.

It seems increasingly that when we talk about design, we also talk about technology playing an integral role in that design. Well, never more so than with the new Adidas Futurecraft Biofabric – a new prototype performance shoe that has an upper made from 100% Biosteel® – a nature-based and completely biodegradable high-performance fibre. In layman’s terms – biodegradable artificial spider silk that will fully decompose in your sink once you’ve finished running them down. Amazing.

My mental pictures of everyday product design often leans heavily on what has already been created – design, materials and function based on pre-established designs using available technology to solve a problem or perform a task. Take the humble kitchen knife for example – I’ve said before that I’m a big fan, but my ‘ideal’ knife definitely falls into the ‘traditional’ design category. In-depth kitchen knife history aside, I think it would be fair to say that the iteration and replication of tried and tested solutions has led to the well-recognised designs we see today.