A clever team of architects in Oslo, Norway, mocks up full-size blueprints using a shared flat concrete courtyard behind their office, allowing colleagues and clients alike to test-drive designs in person during the schematic and design development process.

Vardehaugen Arkitekter has used white tape to draft everything from houses and cabins to offices and pavilions, sharing the results on Instagram with enthusiastic fans and followers.

Like their architecture in general, the white-on-dark drawings are minimalist (in terms of designs and colors) but effective, using standard blueprinting conventions legible to professionals and laypeople alike.

The movie Dogville comes to mind, its props simple and its rooms mapped out on the floor, defined by invisible walls and doors left largely to the viewer’s imagination and extrapolation of a basic barebones blueprint.

Stretching from one end of the Palais de Tokyo gallery in Paris to the other, these strange translucent tunnels look like human-sized versions of the funnel-shaped webs of grass spiders. Instead of helplessly trapped insects, you’ll find people crawling around inside, their weight supported by nothing more than layer after layer of sticky tape and plastic.

Tape Paris is the latest interactive art installation by Croatian-Austrian design collective Numen/For Use, described as a “stretched biomorphic skin” suspended halfway between the floor and ceiling of the gallery’s main hall. The designers see it as a “site specific, parasitical structure invading an arbitrary location.”

Visitors are invited to climb inside, navigating tunnels that vary in height to enable standing at some points but require crawling at others. Those inside can gaze down at the hazy shapes of onlookers below. The basis of the installation is criss-crossed Scotch tape which is reinforced on the outside with an elastic plastic sheeting.

In addition to other tape structures, Numen/For Use is known for inhabitable string and net installations including a gridded ‘social sculpture’ modeled after dadaist collages and suspended nets inside a massive inflatable bubble forming a sort of adult-sized bounce house.

No shutter shades or scarf in this set, just a basic collection of essentials to get you started on the road to a life of independent fashion,  aspiring artistry and political posturing.

A well-worn plaid shirt will compliment your new rounded, thick-rimmed, faux-vintage glasses. Take to the streets and share your mix tape of obscure bands, and don’t forget to shoot some Polaroids while you are at it.

Not sure what to do next? An owner’s manual is included. And what about the mustache? You probably don’t have to be male to pull it off, assuming you wear it with a sufficiently ironic affect. A great Christmas gift too – or maybe if you are feeling fashionably secular you could give it at New Year’s. Sure to be a hit this holiday season, regardless.

Stake your subcultural claim alongside beat, hippie, punk and grunge demographics with your style-defining assortment of goodies by graphic designer Mihael Mikloši. Thrift-store-worthy, organic-looking labels and hand-written fonts for things like the mix tape seal the deal.

Neon geometric shapes hurtle through buildings and appear to float in midair in tape art installations by Brooklyn-based artist Aakash Nihalani. The artist spent the summer in residency at the Willem de Kooning estate in East Hampton, New York, superimposing his signature fluorescent shapes against the soft backdrop of the woods and rustic structures as well as more urban environments.

The bright designs, made of tape, pop out from their surroundings like cartoons, creating what seems like three dimensions on flat surfaces. The resulting visuals can be disorienting, skewing the viewer’s sense of perspective.

The tape is typically applied to a cardboard backing ahead of time so the installations can be quickly put in place and then easily removed, doing no damage to surfaces. Sometimes Nihalani gets just enough time to photograph his installations and then take them right back down.

“My street work consists mostly of isometric rectangles and squares. I selectively place these graphics around New York to highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry of the city itself,” says Nihalani in a statement on his website. “For however briefly, I am trying to offer people a chance to step into a different New York than they are used to seeing, and in turn, momentarily escape from routine schedules and lives.”

Roll tape! These 15 concept adhesive tape dispensers stick sometimes surprising form together with often (though not always) adequate function. Imbuing office supplies with personality can be a difficult proposition but on today’s fiercely competitive desktop it pays to be extra attractive.

J-me Cassette Tape Tape Dispenser

(images via: J-ME Original Design and Coolest Gadgets)

This is a tape dispenser disguised as a cassette tape, ingenious no? Of course, if you don’t remember cassette tapes you won’t find this item ingenious, ingenuous or interesting. At the very least it’s an excellent way of determining which of your office mates is lying about their age.

(images via: The Good Life, UberReview and J-ME Original Design)

The J-me Tape Dispenser is made from hard rubber and has a non-slip bottom because really, who wants their tape dispenser sliding around their desktop when all you want is a small snippet of tape. The case splits apart down its longitudinal axis so you can install a new roll of tape once the current one is exhausted.

Mr P Tape Dispenser

(images via: Design Shop UK, Gingham Skies and VAT-19)

The Mr P Tape Dispenser is a bit of a stretch… at least, Mr P is. Indeed, from his hollow, tape-filled head to his serrated shoes, ol’ Mr P cuts quite a figure while he cuts your tape to exactly the right length. The 6.25” long dispenser in made from tough ABS plastic and is available in a number of colors including cream, pink, blue, black and green.

The Butt Station Desk Accessory Holder

(images via: Love Because)

If you think Mr P’s too one-dimensional, go all out with the Butt Station Desk Accessory Holder! Not only does our anonymous blue (or green, or orange) dude hold your tape and slice it with his sharp shoes, he also stores your pens – one in his mouth and the rest in the “toilet tank” behind him. Speaking of behinds, the faux toilet bowl he’s sitting on stores staples and his magnetized butt will grab a few when you pick him up.

Notchless Tape Dispenser

(images via: Tech Cracks)

Getting back to pure design and capital C conceptualism, we have the Notchless Tape Dispenser by Kikuchi Yasukuni Architects Inc., so-called because it, er, has no notch. Some might say that the open, minimalist design does indeed have a notch: the serrated feature at the end of the aluminum body of the dispenser. Of course, those are the same people who insist on stating they see four lights when everyone knows there are… not four.

(image via: Tech Cracks)

The Notchless Tape Dispenser displays a lean & hungry look that would add a dash of modernist chic to any upscale office layout. In fact, the only adornment visible is the name, origin info and Japanese patent number incised into the dispenser’s lower facing. Notchless or not, it’s got the Japanese Patent Office’s seal of approval.

C-3PO Tape Dispenser

(images via: Superpunch and Spend Money Online)

This C-3PO Tape Dispenser was described as a “vintage” item when it was advertised on eBay, which makes this writer feel positively prehistoric as the hideous thing dates from 1983. Made from porcelain by Sigma, the design can be considered unfortunate on a number of levels, not least its basic functionality. No sir, this is NOT the tape dispensing droid I’m looking for.

Western ID Tape Dispenser Concepts

(images via: National Industrial Concepts)

Where will you find future tape dispensers before their time? At design schools, naturally, and you can decide for yourself if the future is friendly or frightening by eyeballing the tape dispenser designs above. Clockwise from above left are concepts by Hunter Frerich, Jeffrey Grothe and Daniel Galan, sophomore students at Western ID whose idea of the future might be very, very different from yours or mine.

Stealthy Sticky Tape Dispenser

(image via: SUCK UK)

The stealthy Sticky Tape Dispenser from SUCK UK doesn’t suck at all but it most definitely IS stealthy. Its ABS plastic body appears to be polished chrome and inside you’ll find not a coiled metal measuring tape but a very different king of tape one should never use for measuring. It’s even got a belt clip for those who are in the habit of carrying around their tape measures hands-free.

Koziol Elvis Tape Dispenser

(images via: DesignQuest and 4imprint)

The Elvis Tape Dispenser from Koziol references The King in his early, hip-swiveling days as opposed to the later, fatter, sweatier Elvis. Instead of a guitar or a hula-hoop, your desktop rocker sports a roll of tape he slices neatly with the end of his arm.

(image via: Red Candy)

“Yes-sir-ee, uh, uh, I’m gonna stick like glue, because I’m stuck on you,” sez our tape dispenser from Tupelo – or at he would if he had a chip installed in his acrylic body. Work on that, Koziol.

Tape Dispenser by JAG

(image via: Thingiverse)

There’s not much one can say about the tape dispenser from JAG other than it’s big, it’s bulky, it’s a little rough around the edges and it looks like it’s made of hardened bubble gum. And I’m all right with that.

Anime Tape Dispenser

(images via: Fuckedgaijin)

The Anime Tape Dispenser is one of a set of five different stationery items featuring Japanese schoolgirl figurines decked out in Phys Ed duds – better than tartan skirts, one supposes. The other figures pose with an eraser, ruler, pen holder and pencil sharpener, the latter two less suggestively than you might assume. The manufacturer’s website seems to be 404 but these figurines have achieved an afterlife of sorts, which says a lot about either their quality or that of their buyers.

Surrealist Tape Dispenser

(image via: Design Launches)

Boston-based Haiden Goggin thinks the Surrealist Tape Dispenser is just looking for a space on your desk, so consider yourself warned and start filling every inch of space before it arrives. Did the creative types at H-G model this disturbing concept after Steve Martin circa 1977? Can you say “Excuuuuuse me!!” with your mouth taped over?

Scotch Donut Tape Dispenser by 3M

(images via: Zillamag and The Exterminator Syndicate)

Nothing goes better with work than Scotch and donuts, unless you’re, say, a brain surgeon in which case you might want to hold off until after the operation. These cute & kitschy tape dispensers come from 3M, the Post-It Note people, so you’re know they’re on the up & up. Or, maybe it’s the result of too much Scotch in the boardroom, you never know.

(image via: Flowerpoop)

It should be said that these Scotch Donut Tape Dispensers come to us by way of 3M Japan, not the staid old fogies from the former Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company from Maplewood, Minnesota.

Elephant-shaped Tape Dispenser

(images via: TrendHunter and Pink Tentacle)

Got junk in your trunk? Available in a range of rainbow colors, the Elephant-shaped Tape Dispenser from Japan’s Nichiban stomps all over the competition when it comes to being cute AND useful. The design is somewhat stylized and takes full advantage of the average elephant’s shape to adapt it to cutting tape.

Bookend Tape Dispenser

(images via: Caina and Hono/Rakuten)

Here’s the Bookend+ Tape Dispenser from Japan’s Ideaco, because if there’s anywhere you want a roll of sticky adhesive tape it’s next to those pricey college textbooks and favorite first editions. To be honest, though, squeezing extra usefulness out of something as one-dimensional as a bookend takes a lot of smarts… book smarts to be exact.

Heavy-Weight Tape Dispenser

(images via: Enterase and Fitzsu)

The Heavy-Weight Tape Dispenser from the UK’s Black + Blum looks like the business end of a 1954 De Soto sedan and appears to be about as massive – just wait ’til you drop it on your toe for the first time!

(image via: Pedlars)

Considering a Heavy-Weight Tape Dispenser? Be careful what you wish for: you may end up having to purchase a heavy-weight desk to support it, and don’t even think of “sticking” the cost onto your office supplies budget.

(image via: KB Design)

We hope you like this selection of concept designer tape dispensers enough to take them to heart, but if not there’s always the Heart Tape Dispenser above. Call it humor in a jugular vein… and be sure to install low-cholesterol tape to avoid sticky blockages!