Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Goodbye Fidget Spinner, Hello Tiny Arcade!

Posted: 02 Jun 2017 12:00 PM PDT

Why are these ridiculous fidget spinners such a craze?! Enough with it! If you want to keep your fingers busy and yourself entertained, ditch that spinner for a TinyArcade that actually puts a miniature playable arcade game in the palm of your hand!

Modeling itself after the arcade consoles as we know them, these lilliputian arcades are literally the size of your finger, going to show how far we’ve come in the past 30 years! Loaded with a joystick and two buttons, the arcade runs games off a MicroSD that fits right inside the arcade. A power and a volume knob located on the side and top are the only other controls you’ll ever need. The TinyArcade comes equipped with a whole bunch of classic 8-bit games (Tetris, Flappy Birds, Street Racer and Space Invader, to name a few) that should provide you with hours of entertainment! Now for the love of humanity, please ditch that fidget spinner. It doesn’t impress anybody!

Designer: TinyCircuits

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How to re-design the PlayStation…

Posted: 02 Jun 2017 08:20 AM PDT

While the PlayStation stands at the forefront of every gamer’s childhood, as a designer, I feel the evolution seems a little haphazard. For starters, the PlayStation 2 looks nothing like the original, barring the logo. This PlayStation redesign concept pays tribute to the design style of the original PlayStation and the PSone with its sleek and suprematist combination of circle and square, while also cleverly using the controller’s button symbols as design elements. It takes everything that’s lovable about the old design, and blends it wonderfully with crisp straight lines and a sleek interface and experience. Now THAT’s how you execute a proper design evolution!

Designer: Minkyu Kim

Most Buzzed Designs of May 2017

Posted: 02 Jun 2017 08:10 AM PDT

Below you’ll find the most popular designs we’ve tracked over the last 30 days – an overview of designs you shouldn’t have missed in May 2017.

What the Elbow Cassette Player does is innovative, geeky, kitschy, revivalist, and incredibly cool… all together! This small device opens up, swivels, and snaps onto a cassette tape (almost like it was meant to be how cassettes were to be played!).

Panic sets in when you can’t find your keys, or your wallet, or you can’t remember where you parked your car. That’s why we have Mu Tags. These potential life savers are tiny “loss prevention” smart-tags that track the location of the items they are placed on.

This pen is literally timeless. In the sense that it will run forever, that too without a single drop of ink. Coming from the one company that knows timeless design best, Italy’s Pininfarina, the Pininfarina Cambiano pen is a beautiful, sleek writing tool that uses innovative design and material choice to give you a pen (or rather a pencil, given the way it writes) that uses a nib made out of a patented metallic alloy called Ethergraf that can create never-ending lines of graphite on paper.

The Volvo Autonomous Carrier expands on the concept of cargo hauling autonomy by addressing tire wear and maximizing useable space. First, the tire platform sections are separate and turn independently of the main cargo body (unlike conventional trailers) which minimizes tire wear and increases maneuverability. As for the useable space, the lack of a driver makes for more room up front.

Most scratching posts are aimed at keeping the cat’s damage limited to the post itself, but they forget one crucial aspect. Cats don’t desire functionality. They’re weird, curious creatures… and scratching posts too functionally pure for them. The Cone by WISKI, however, isn’t. Designed with a hollow space that the cat will automatically want to sit inside, the Cone is an ideal blend of functional and weird, making it a great cat accessory (or catcessory).

KODA prefab home can be completely disassembled, and reassembled at another location within a day!

The HangSmart allows you to level your artwork, and adjust its placement by moving it upwards/downwards or left/right AFTER you’ve hung your painting.

The Pebble 2017 watch is designed to be as self-sustainable as possible. Unlike other smartwatches that need charging every other day, the Pebble 2017 edition sports an e-ink screen, known to consume 99% lesser energy than an LED Display. The entire UI of the watch is designed in brilliant contrast, and shows wonderfully on the black/white display.

Not many designers exercise the right to say “Hey, let’s just completely forget what we know about a company’s visual language and make an entirely new one from scratch”. Designer Ivan Venkov decided to reimagine Ferrari as a completely new company, fully putting Ferrari’s and Pininfarina’s 60 year design language aside to develop something more aggressive and edgy.

The modular V4 backpack by Black Ember allows you to carry any and everything related to travel, adventure, and photography in a format that is of use to you! Individual compartment cubes (made for separate uses and needs) can easily be customized within the bag, allowing you to carry more or less equipment.

Rather than relying on software, the Pinhole Pro lens allows you to harness the vintage style of photography using your go-to camera.

Thirst Quenching Sculptures

Posted: 02 Jun 2017 03:34 AM PDT

Nothing will kill the natural vibe of an outdoor park space quite like an eyesore of drinking fountain. Fontanus is a sculptural solution that won’t, if you even notice it! Almost unrecognizable as a fountain at all, this discrete design is comprised of two pillars that elegantly and playfully interact with water between them.

The fountain’s two drinking sources are located at different heights, making it convenient for both adults and children. The fountain is also equipped with a bottle filling nozzle that can be used as a fountain for pets. Water can be turned on by pushing the big button and is shut off as soon as the button is released, preventing unnecessary waste.

Designer: Art Lebedev Studio

A Truly Smart Smartwatch

Posted: 02 Jun 2017 01:22 AM PDT

If you’re committed to wearing a smartwatch, you’re facing a few problems that wearers of classic timepieces aren’t… your watch will become outmode and you’re limited in terms of aesthetic expression! Doesn’t sound so smart after all! Unless, of course, you have Thinkable Studio’s endlessly upgradable OMNI Smartwatch.

OMNI is focused on individuality, ease of use and expandability. The modular design takes inspiration from analog watches so you no longer have to commit to only one design. A vast number of faces with varying styles, materials and finishes are available and even the straps can be customized with features like extended batteries, a physical dial for diving, or even health sensors for fitness tracking. When it comes time to upgrade the system, just switch out the core so you’re always on top of the tech!

Designer: Thinkable Studio

YD’s Top 10 Father’s Day Buys!

Posted: 01 Jun 2017 06:03 PM PDT

It’s June! Which means you’ve just made it past Mother’s Day, but now you’ve got Father’s Day coming up on the 18th of the month! Worry not if you’re unprepared, because our elves (they don’t just work around the Christmas season) have curated a winning list of amazing products to wow your dad. Or maybe treat yourself to something nice if you’re a recent-father!

For the Dapper-Timepiece Dad
Undeniably the most intriguing timepiece we’ve encountered, the Bradley watch by EONE brings a tactile element to time by ditching the hands for two magnetically guided ball-bearings. You could either look at the watch to read the time, or conversely you could run your finger across the dial to ‘feel’ time move by… The latter is surely more poetic!

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For the Retro-Loving Dad
Remind your father again of the lovely clickety-clack typewriter times with the Qwerkywriter Bluetooth Keyboard! It lends its vintage spirit to any device you dock in and gives you the comfort of a typewriter-style keyboard, along with the delightful sound too! The keyboard comes fully equipped with number, symbol, and even function keys. Plus it charges via USB and can run for 3 months on a full charge!

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For the Fix-It-Yourself Dad
My father, like most fathers, taught me to always have the curiosity to tinker with products and attempt at fixing them on one’s own. The Mininch Hex Pen puts all the tinkering tools you need into a small yet surprisingly versatile pen. Equipped with all the standard screw-driver bits you’ll need, the Hex Pen comes made in the finest S2 Tool Steel and is available in both Imperial and Metric variants.

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For the Connect-With-Nature Dad
Heimplanet is known for their rugged, resilient, roomy, yet ridiculously convenient tents. The Cave, for instance, can be manually assembled by just one person and a pump. The patented outer tube framework gets filled with air and brings the tent’s geodesic shape to life. It also helps in absorbing shock and returns to shape instantaneously if it takes a hit in bad weather. Once done, all you do is deflate the tent, roll it up, and stash it in the back of your car for another day!

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For the Pensive-Penman Dad
This is the Pininfarina Cambiano Inkless Pen. It uses a nib made of a special metallic alloy called Ethergraf that can oxidize paper on touching it, effectively leaving a mark without using any graphite or ink. This also means that the pen runs forever. That should definitely have your dad going “Wow, now I’ve seen everything”. Now if that isn’t a fascinatingly great father’s day gift, kindly fax me the definition of what is!

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For the Mobile-Network-Problems Dad
In all honesty, this is all of us… but somehow parents have the worst luck with technology. My parents are always complaining about how their cellphone reception isn’t the greatest and how landline telephones were the best. The LinKase Signal Boosting Case for the iPhone puts a physical antenna that can be pulled out when needed and pushed back to give you a flush case design when you’re not on a call. The LinKase by Absolute Technology boasts that its external antenna brings about a noticeable increase in cellphone reception and even mobile internet reception, so no more yelling “Can you hear me now??”.

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For the Margheritas-And-Magic Dad
You could buy your dad some glassware, or you could buy your dad some Levitating Glassware! The Levitating Cup by Levitating X literally floats magically off the surface of the table. Using quantum levitation technology to float, the glass holds its place, and won’t topple over if accidentally bumped into. It uses a custom base that’s available in wired and wireless formats, whereas the glass itself comes in different variants! With the floating cup, you won’t need to manually raise a toast anymore!

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For the Quirky-Hunter Dad
I think I’m just making adjectives up now! But how about gifting your father some rather cool, PETA-friendly animal trophies? These Papertrophies come pre-cut and pre-creased and ready for assembly. A quick-guide helps you put together these rather amazing pieces of polygonal animal art that are sure to grab eyes once you enter the room! No animals were harmed, obviously!

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For the Audiophile Dad
The Trobla speaker is a delightful product to own because since most of us forget to charge our wireless Bluetooth speaker’s batteries, the Trobla was made so that it wouldn’t need one! It magnifies your phone’s inbuilt speaker using a gramophone-style principle, and plus, with its walnut wood body, the sound is made louder, richer, and clearer! You’ll be surprised at how good the audio of your phone can sound when good design takes over! No headphone jack, no Bluetooth, no battery, no problem! Just lose yourself to the music!

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For the Shutterbug Dad
Gift your father a camera he’ll cherish for life. Not just because it clicks incredible pictures, but because he’ll get to build it from scratch! You could build it together, for an even more cherishing experience! The Lomography Konstruktor Camera comes in a kit that needs to be put together. When completely assembled, this film camera will click some exquisite pictures. That’s the Lomography Guarantee! Want to go even more wild? Buy the Konstruktor transparent collector’s edition!

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