The joy of my job comes in discovering products that make me go “Damn, I wish I thought of that”. These moments admittedly don’t come often, but that just makes their arrival more worthwhile. The Visual Measuring Cups are one of those products. They’re sensible, they’re useful, and they have absolutely no learning curve. They’re good design in practically every way, because they enrich lives with their simplicity and ingeniousness. I’m one of those people who doesn’t own a measuring cup, so I play out my ingredients by eye. I have a cup at home I use for all my measuring activities, and my intuition tells me when the flour or sugar or milk is occupying 1/4th of the cup, or half the cup. The problem here, other than me relying on my sense of spatial awareness, is that not everyone has the same cup, or teaspoon or tablespoon. While recipes try to make things easier by using measuring units like cups, because not everyone can measure in grams, ounces, or milliliters, that simplification has its own demerits. Cups and spoons vary across households, not to mention, not everyone can tell the difference between a 1/3rd cup and a 1/4th cup. The genius of the Visual Measuring Cups is that not only do the provide a fixed, standard measurement, they’re visually indicative too. Designed to look like the fractions they represent, the cups make it easier to understand measurements. The quarter cup is quadrant-shaped, the half cup is semi-circular. This sheer sensibility makes it quicker to measure out multiple ingredients without worrying about whether your measurements are accurate, because you know for sure they are! The Visual Measuring Cups turn textual references into visual references, helping us understand the measurements better. While most measuring beakers and cups use indicative lines to ‘tell’ you how much half a cup is, the Visual Measuring Cup ‘shows’ you how much half a cup us, giving you a quicker, better understanding of fractional metrics. Available in four sizes spanning a full cup, half cup, one-third cup, and quarter cup, the Visual Measuring Cups are easy to use and need literally no explanation. Their visual nature allows them to be used universally, without numbers or languages being a barrier… and just when things couldn’t get any better, they nest right into one another to make them easy to store! Designer: Pam Daniels of Welcome Industries ($2 off per gift box). Use coupon code “2OFFYANKO”. What if you could tell a measurement at a glance, without having to read a label? What if you could know by feel which was which? Meet Visual Measuring Cups, the first measuring cups where the shape itself indicates the unit of measure, making it easier for everyone to take part in cooking. The Visual Measuring Cups show you what’s what. A full cup looks like a whole circle. A half cup looks like a half. A third looks like 1/3, and a quarter looks like 1/4. Each set contains four standard U.S. measures: 1/4c, 1/3c, 1/2c, and 1 cup. The set of four cups nests neatly and fits inside a standard drawer. The inspiration for the Visual Measuring Cups began with a pie chart, and after four years and lots of 3D-printed prototypes exploring possibilities, every detail was considered in the patented design: – Nests neatly and fits in a standard drawer – High quality clear resin will not crack or craze – Dishwasher safe and BPA-free – Four-part set includes 1c, 1/2c, 1/3c and 1/4c The Visual Measuring Cups were designed by Pam Daniels, one of the founders of Welcome Industries and a faculty member at Northwestern University’s Segal Design Institute. Welcome Industries is partnering with Chicago-based Janler Corp, a woman-owned business, to do the tooling and manufacturing of the Visual Measuring Cups. Working locally makes collaboration easier and means faster delivery times and less uncertainty for retailers. ($2 off per gift box). Use coupon code “2OFFYANKO”.