Remember the time when smartphone and app designers scrambled to make sure that icons and user interfaces resembled real-world objects as closely as possible? This was the age of the first iPhone and practically most iconography and UI launched during those years. The design language offered familiar faces at a time when new devices and experiences felt alien and even daunting.
Of course, minimalism is the battle cry in design these days, even when it comes to user interfaces. That doesn’t mean one can’t miss the sometimes cute and often quirky precepts of skeuomorphism. In an interesting twist of fate, these wallets turn that design trend on its head to bring literally iconic folders from the computer screen to your pocket.
Designer: Nik Bentel
Skeuomorphic design brought physical objects into the digital realm, or at least their simplified representations. The idea was to carry over some of the intuitiveness of real-world things into an unfamiliar experience, though that only worked in the beginning. Icon and UI designs now espouse flat, minimalist, and completely virtual aesthetics, though they still retain the basic form of the object they represent.
These rather adorable wallets come full circle by bringing those digital objects into the real world, specifically, the folders used to hold files in computers. On the one hand, it pays homage to the age of skeumorphic design that aimed to bridge the gap between the two worlds. On the other hand, it’s the complete opposite of skeuomorphism not in terms of aesthetics but in the direction of digital to physical.
Made from vegan leather, these wallets also carry a bit of computing history to them. The PC Folder Wallet, for example, is similar to the icon theme used in the Windows XP era, while the New Folder Wallet is closer to the current Windows 11. There’s also an “Untitled Folder Wallet” that will be familiar to macOS users. All three wallets come in boxes that match the operating system they were inspired from.
The wallets themselves only have two pockets and are pretty slim and minimal. Depending on your actual needs, they might be a bit too limited. That said, these designs are really more for show, with some practical use included. Definitely a collector’s item or gift idea, especially for those who have a fondness for computers and history.
