I've totally fallen for the Swedish synth-makers and electronic gizmo creators, Teenage Engineering.

They make the OP-1, a portable synth that allows you to make 4-track songs, from it's library of digital drum & synth sounds + sampling capabilities. It also has super interesting sequencers and other weird features that make it play more like a video game than a traditional instrument.

It's taken over my life for the past month, and I'm completely enthralled. Let me show you a quick video!

Kind of wild to me that it's been out for 10 years now. It still feels so fresh and interesting!

They also recently collaborated with Panic on Playdate, a handheld gaming console that features super simple black & white graphics and a hand crank. Oh yeah, and you don't really buy games for it, the system connects to wifi and games are sent to the thing willy nilly. Check it out!

While I only own the OP-1, the design and philsophy of Teenage Engineering's products all seem to follow a pattern. They're a bit toy-like, modern (but, often with a retro twist), sometimes a tad impractical (& expensive!), and almost always quirky. Anyway, I feel like they've cracked the code here with me as I find their design and delivery so damn delightful!

So, what are your thoughts? Do you also dig Teenage Engineering? If you're a designer (because I'm certainly not!) can you help to explain to me what Teenage Engineering is doing that is so attractive to me? And devs, what do you think about the software they've been developing for the unique devices they've created?