Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

These carabiner clips are made from a single titanium piece

Posted: 09 Apr 2018 11:00 AM PDT

It took Jeb Cheng quite a bit of trial and error (as you can see here), but after dozens of prototypes, he ultimately arrived at the perfect design for a single-piece carabiner made from titanium. A series of slanted cuts, spaced apart to provide a balance between flexibility and rigidity without breaking apart, are placed in the arm of the carabiner. A little pressure allows it to slide backwards (the cuts only give it flexibility in a single direction), giving you enough space to slip your keys in. Release the pin/arm and it reverts to its original position.

The FLEX TK6 Titanium Keychain comes in two variants, a slightly larger one with two movable arms, and a smaller, single arm variant. Machined from a single block of titanium, before being given a scratch-resistant coating, the FLEX TK6 will probably last forever, outliving keys and traditional locking systems; but so what if it’s 2050 and you’re unlocking your doors with Siri or biometrics… You can use the TK6 then to tie together the rest of your EDC!

Designer: Jeb Cheng (Inspirs Design)

Roasting your Coffee is a Beautiful, Tasty Act of Rebellion

Posted: 09 Apr 2018 07:05 AM PDT

Coffee roasting has a pretty interesting history. There was a time when the Arabs had control over pretty much all the coffee cultivation in the world (Arabica beans come from Ethiopia, where they were originally cultivated) and in order to maintain their monopoly, the Arabs would export coffee beans worldwide but would roast them beforehand. These roasted beans would be packed with flavor, and would create the coffee craze we’re familiar with around the world, but it would also mean heavy dependence on Arabia because you couldn’t grow the roasted beans. This was until a few lucky people managed to smuggle raw beans out of Arabia and to places around the world (like Baba Budan who would carry beans to India in the 14th century where he would set up a massive plantation in and around the Malabar region). The practice, however, of roasting beans before shipping them stuck around (in order to preserve them better and increase their shelf life), creating a sort of brand dependency in the modern world.

Coffee connoisseurs believe that the beans are best consumed immediately after they’re roasted, and while they do last longer after roasting (resulting in a higher shelf life), their flavor gradually deteriorates. Kelvin hopes to change the status quo, by letting you roast your beans just minutes before you consume them… giving you not just the freshness you deserve, but also the freedom to choose how strong you want your roast to be. Roasting your own coffee also helps you directly support the coffee-growers by buying the raw beans from them, and giving them their share of the profit.

The tabletop roaster uses air to evenly cook your raw coffee beans to a beautiful toasty brown consistency. Occupying a palm’s width of space, the Kelvin (named rather appropriately after the unit of temperature) allows you to be in control of your roast, choosing your roast time. A simple knob is the only UI on the device. Twist it to set the roast time and the Kelvin takes care of everything else. It heats the beans right up to the correct temperature, giving you a well-balanced roast, filters out any of the chaff/husk that comes off during the roasting process, and even cools the beans down post-roasting, making them ready for the grinder.

Partnering with various farmers, Kelvin also delivers the green beans straight to your doorstep. Designed to be an ecosystem rather than a simple product, Kelvin gives you the freedom of choice, letting you choose beans from different regions and having them delivered to your home. The freedom to roast the beans to a desired level is the second step in enforcing customer choice, so you don’t need to rely on store-bought beans anymore. In doing so, Kelvin claims that you won’t just have better tasting coffee at your fingertips, you’ll end up saving money too, by not pandering to big-brand-markups and their packaging/logistical charges, while contributing directly to the livelihood of the coffee growers, who often live at the mercy of these big brands.

The Kelvin Coffee Roaster is a winner of the iF Design Award, the IDEA (International Design Excellence Award), and the American Good Design Award, for its innovative and compact roasting process, clean design and interface, as well as its holistic system design.

Designer: IA Collaborative

Click here to Buy Now: $229.00 $329.00

Kelvin lets you custom roast fresh beans, explore new flavors, save money, and reduce waste. Kelvin helps to unlock the advantages of home coffee roasting for even the most novice coffee drinker.

Try new types of beans, styles, and intensities of roasts. And blend them.

Kelvin is the first home coffee roasting system that also provides a curated selection of green coffee beans delivered straight to you. By putting the entire process into your hands, you have the control and range to experiment with multiple bean origins, roasting times, blends, and flavors to experience a new side of coffee from first crack to French roast.

Save money. Unroasted beans are often half the price of craft roasted beans. Unroasted beans also stay fresh for months, while roasted coffee can lose its flavor in days. No more trashing stale beans. No more wasting money.

With Kelvin, fresh green beans are brought directly to you, without the costs of professional roasting and handling. This leads to significant savings that helps Kelvin pay for itself in less than a year.

Kelvin is for everybody; designed for the first-time explorer to the seasoned do-it-yourself coffee aficionado. It’s now easy for everyone to experiment and discover the amazing complexity of craft coffee with set-and-go, perfectly roasted beans at any time of the day.

Roast with confidence —We’ve engineered Kelvin to roast and bring out the best quality from any raw coffee beans, using a vortex-drive bottom-up air roasting technique that will lead to a more even roast — so your cup is delicious no matter how you brew.

Roast for a pot, or just a cup —The ideal batch size for Kelvin is 100-120g of green coffee beans— enough to brew about 4-6 cups of coffee— so you can roast just enough for your morning pour over or for a whole pot. This flexibility enables you to make fresh coffee for any occasion, and all in under 10 minutes.

Unlimited outcomes — Set the roasting time by simply turning the control knob, push to start, and Kelvin does the rest. You can also add or remove time mid-roast, to make it easier to personalize your flavor. Combine different beans from around the world with varying roasting times, and the flavor possibilities are endless.

Roasting to different levels allows for coffee beans to express different qualities, based on how lightly or darkly they’re roasted. It’s easy to uncover each variety’s range of flavors by experimenting with small batches.

Simple cleanup —Collecting chaff is no hassle with Kelvin’s built in filter. It easily slips into the roasting chamber, capturing chaff efficiently and in one place. Bonus—you can even compost chaff for an eco-friendly cleanup.

Click here to Buy Now: $229.00 $329.00

Most Buzzed Designs of March 2018

Posted: 09 Apr 2018 12:55 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 March 2018.

Created by a worldwide team of nearly 2000 designers, developers, and engineers, the polygonal Karlmann King SUV is based on the Ford F-550 chassis and packs a 6.8-Liter V10 gasoline engine.

Designed to spin at a break-neck 3600 RPM, plated with real gold, and with not one, but two halos, the Halospheres isn’t some lowly fidget toy.

Skateboards are cool. Electric cars are cool. Smash them together and you have the Mellow Drive!

The Keego is a squeeze bottle… but it isn’t made out of HDPE or PET, it’s made of titanium.

The cable, which is inspired by the tassels often found on women’s bags, means that the user needn’t worry about ever losing the cable on this powerbank.

This compact pressure cooker leaves little room for a large user interface, so it’s equipped with a holographic UI that displays on any countertop.

Elago’s leather Airpods case has a divine design. It wraps the case in high-quality natural cow-hide leather, available in both brown and black.

Mobile phones, and this is irrefutable, have always been about screens. Adding the camera to the mobile phone just catalyzed the screen race… and well, honestly, the race is close to its end… and with it, the golden age of smartphones.

This wireless charging design utilizes rare-earth magnets to cling on to your device so it can be removed quickly and easily as needed.

Why do phones and calculators have different numpads?

This case has an integrated UV light and heating system that sanitizes, disinfects and dries the utensils, ensuring they’re prepped for use the next time you need them!

Designed to be the thinnest and lightest wallet we’ve ever seen, the Micro Wallet is just 2.3mm thick, is durable, waterproof, eco-friendly, comes with space for 8 cards and cash, and even integrates RFID protection.

Designer Gao Yang decided to pay homage to Braun’s legacy in the form of type!

This plug-and-play system requires no major installation and can be connected in a jiffy to power all the onboard creature comforts of home like electronics, cooking appliances and climate control you need to stay comfy.

This design sports over 20 unique functionalities built into one compact unit you can take with you just about anywhere. You can literally throw out an entire toolbox in exchange for one tiny, titanium key!

Samsung’s latest series of QLED TVs come with what’s known as an ambient mode, that through the power of image capturing and incredible algorithms, turns the TV invisible, barring the beautiful thin bezel that you barely notice!

Is it a bike? A trike? A scooter? The TF1 is actually all three!

The Ovini Balance Stool relies on a hemispherical cushion and a series of ball bearings to give you a seat that allows you to shift and adjust your sitting angle to keep your spine active and engaged.

Designed to rest against a wall, this turntable comes with a mesh door that holds the vinyl in place, and the needle is built right into the door itself.

A Bluetooth keyboard can enhance your work but lugging two separate devices around isn’t ideal either. Designed with this in mind, the Cover Bluetooth Keyboard doubles as a place to safely store your tablet.

Thinking of studying industrial design? This post is a must read.

This pen’s non-cylindrical design provides a good amount of positives as a result. Fingers don’t cramp from holding something flat that doesn’t press into your skin, the pen doesn’t roll off flat surfaces, storing the pen with something as flat as a notebook seems much more comfortable.

The Whale fan, named after its ridges that resemble those on a whale’s belly, it’s ergonomically shaped to fit comfortably in the hand while safely concealing its fan blade safely.

Now you can channel your inner Thor superhero every morning with the Hammer alarm clock! Grab the hammer and slam it down on the rubberized base to shut off the alarm.

This fan literally blows and sucks! As more urban-based companies lean toward work-from-home policies, so does the need to have better indoor air quality at home.

The Cone mouse is a whole lot more aesthetically appealing if not entirely more ergonomic than the traditional mouse.

Check out YD’s top 25 designs of February 2018.

Check out YD’s top 25 designs of January 2018.

A Nokia with a Notch

Posted: 09 Apr 2018 12:40 AM PDT

The latest from smartphone super-enthusiast Hege, the NOKIA X isn’t the most technologically advanced or most sleek and minimalistic smartphone concept out there. However, it does have a cute little notched screen and one spiffy feature that I wouldn’t mind seeing implemented on other designs.

An integrated micro-LED on the top-front of the screen serves as a notification alert so you can glance down or across the room when your phone is on silent to see if you’ve received any messages, calls or other important items. You can even customize it to alert to only specific alerts so you remain undistracted by notifications that aren’t pertinent.

Designer: Hege

Other features besides the accent light include a 5.7 inch edge-to-edge screen while the beveled backside provides greater grip. Other specs include:

– Front/Rear Facing Cameras
– Dual LED Flash
– Photographic Light Sensors
– Fingerprint Reader
– Removable Battery
– USB Type-C
– Headphone Jack
– Stereo Speakers

Reading on the Move

Posted: 08 Apr 2018 07:30 PM PDT

Reading on any mode of public transport is an art in itself, but when it comes to a busy underground or subway it’s suddenly taken to a whole new level of difficulty! LECTOR is a neat little accessory that enables the user to comfortably hold a book in just the one hand, allowing the other to be free to hold on to the grab handles.

The ergonomically driven shape facilitates grip and makes for a comfortable position to ensure there is no discomfort after prolonged use. LECTORS flexible design also lends its self to be used by both right-handed and left-handed people and is compact enough to make it hassle-free to carry with you everywhere!

Manufactured solely using 3D printing, LECTOR retains the distinct surface texture that this manufacturing method can create, and we love this!

Designer: Francisco Abarca

The Spirit of the Ocean in your Home

Posted: 08 Apr 2018 05:15 PM PDT

On a calm day the ocean can be a wonderfully serene and tranquil place and with the help of Float, you can begin to evoke this within your home. With a form that is inspired by that of Japanese glass fishing floats, which gently bob on the surface of the sea, this light makes for an extremely attractive feature in any room.

Due to its unique and flexible design, it looks striking either hung-up on the wall or resting on a table. The spherical section lets out 360 degrees of light in the form of a warm but gentle glow, therefore softly illuminating the entire room.

Float’s form can still be appreciated when the light is off; its carefully crafted form is minimal yet literal and is free from any unnecessary elements to ensure the design isn’t at all fussy. This makes this versatile light a perfect addition to any home!

Designer: Viviana Degradi for Gantri

Click here to Buy Now: $168.00