Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Do these knives look familiar??

Posted: 06 Jun 2017 12:00 PM PDT

Like a phoenix that rises from the ashes of itself, the Creek Cutler knives rise from the ashes of workshop tools, retaining the soul of a craftsman, but just shifting from one craft to another.

Made from discarded rounded and flat files (you’ll notice the textured surfaces on the grip area), the Creek Cutler series are titled “Remade in England” as they attempt at recycle and re-purpose the files into beautiful kitchen knives. Each knife is re-purposed from carbon-steel scrap files and is forged, re-heat-treated, and ground, to give it a new life altogether. The blades can be custom made as per requirement (they offer Paring, Santoku, and Chef blade designs), while the texture of the file itself is ground down to make sure they’re easy to grip and not abrasive against the skin. The way the texture fades out as the blade begins is an art in itself!

The Creek Cutler knives are currently only available in UK, but I’d like to believe that their philosophy is inspirational enough to push some of us to re-purpose our own scrap tools into something useful and beautiful!

Designer: Creek Cutler

You Don’t Need Airpods to Go Wireless

Posted: 06 Jun 2017 06:15 AM PDT

I have an entire box of broken earphones. Cords frayed, jacks bent, earpieces come undone. While I love the 3.5mm jack dearly, it’s no fable that the 3.5mm jack causes problems. Wires bend when you keep your phone in your jeans pocket, jacks become loose, affecting the sound quality while you walk.

The solution is inevitably wireless, but it is, to be honest, a slightly expensive solution. ATECH’s Micro Bluetooth Receiver may just be changing that by being the smallest, lightest, and most reasonable wireless solution yet. Instead of buying a wireless headset, ATECH’s receiver plugs into your existing headset to turn it wireless. You can switch between your favorite wired earphones or even use the receiver to wirelessly beam music to your car stereo. No more Aux woes! It comes in a small thumb-drive-esque size with simply one headphone jack and three buttons (one for playback and two for volume). What’s great is that the Micro Bluetooth Receiver even charges via the 3.5mm jack, eliminating the need for an extra port!

It charges in under 1.5 hours and gives more than 4 hours of playback on a full charge. Plus, you can always go back to wired music if your receiver runs out of charge, so you’re absolutely in control. This means you don’t need to shell out cash for an additional pair of expensive wireless earpieces that need to be charged to work. Use what you have, and the ATECH Micro Bluetooth Receiver adds wireless magic to it! Oh, did I also mention, it amps up your sound to give you hi-def sound? For just 20 bucks?

Designer: Rin Preda

BUY NOW: $19.99 $49.99

BUY NOW: $19.99 $49.99

Finally, a Pretty Projector

Posted: 06 Jun 2017 04:00 AM PDT

U-G-L-Y, projectors ain’t got no alibi! Seriously, if you’ve ever shopped around for one, you know the options look like something straight out of that Short Circuit movie from 1986. Unfortunately, they’re also not convenient to hide within paneling or a wall because they radiate so much heat! Orbit, however, is one you won’t mind having on display. After all, the whole idea behind a home projector is so you don’t have an TV eyesore dominating your room!

This modern projection system transforms unused walls and blank spaces into a smart home interface and blends in to the surrounding architecture seamlessly. Unlike other boxy builds, the system is housed in a recycled aluminum circular case with a minimalist puck style remote and aluminum balancer. Simply move this magnetically attached counterbalance to change the angle of projection and to keep it steady. Its integrated battery is capable of delivering four hours of video playback which means it’s not only capable of being floor or ceiling mounted, but also completely portable.

Designer: Louis Berger

The Ultimate Appliance to Kick Off Your Day

Posted: 06 Jun 2017 12:00 AM PDT

What two little breakfast items require their own big specialized appliances?! If you guessed coffee and toast, you’re right. Designed with this in mind, Morning Touch combines the functionality of a toaster and coffee maker into one device to save you time and valuable counter space.

Users can cook a variety of toast and coffee types by adjusting settings in the smart touchscreen interface. Here, they can also check the weather, stocks, news and more to get their day started. In terms of appliance hybridization, it makes perfect, simple sense!

Designer: Hojun Lee

Who said wrenches were perfect?

Posted: 05 Jun 2017 05:01 PM PDT

Rarely can you say that your wrench is an iF Product Design Award and a Red Dot Design Award winning piece of equipment. However the Bionic Wrench warrants that distinction. Simple in its approach, requiring nothing but a good grip, the wrench adjusts itself to any 6-sided hex-nut or bolt-head, covering sizes from 12mm to 20mm.

Unlike the adjustable crescent wrenches that need you to fiddle with the movable jaw, getting your thumbs greasy, the Bionic Wrench just needs you to pull the two grips together. The six teeth in the wrench’s mouth clamp down tightly on the nut, giving you a secure hold, allowing you to tighten or loosen the toughest of nuts/bolts like a breeze. I mean, the Bionic Wrench wouldn’t win major awards for just looking pretty, right?

Designer: Loggerhead Tools

BUY NOW

BUY NOW

Apple’s tune-busting Fabergé Egg

Posted: 05 Jun 2017 02:18 PM PDT

End-February 2017, Apple finally addresses its most visually controversial product from 2013, the Mac Pro, also dubbed as the ‘dustbin shaped Mac’. Jump to 3 months later… we get that feeling of deja-vu looking at Apple’s latest release. Fresh from its debut at the WWDC 2017, the Homepod is Apple’s Siri powered speaker, aimed at rivaling Amazon’s Echo, Google’s Home, and Harman Kardon’s Cortana-powered Invoke speaker.

While it looks like Apple designed a tiny, Mac-pro inspired, audio-busting egg (and also lawsuit-warrantingly similar to UE’s Wonderboom speaker), it does house some pretty serious tech under its shell (get it?). For starters, it houses an A8 chip under it that gives it sheer computing power. Why would a speaker need sheer computing power? Because the Homepod is smart. Keep it anywhere in the room and it senses its location, matches it with the music its playing, and automatically equalizes it to make your music sound good no matter where you are. It also (like every AI Speaker out there) boasts of a touchscreen upper-surface that can be used to trigger Siri. Siri itself has been given quite an upgrade (good news, because Siri sucked primate-privates), and is now equipped with machine learning skills, so be prepared to have the Homepod answer all sorts of questions like “Who’s the drummer of this band?” or “Play me something more groovy”. Additionally, it’s also set to work with your home, allowing you to control lights and what-not. About time, really.

All this comes with an “Apple-worthy” price tag though. Available only at the end of this year, the Homepod will retail at $349. Sounds like much, but let’s remember that it comes with an A8 chip, 6 microphones, 7 hi-frequency tweeters, and one monster of a sub-woofer. Plus we all know that premium sound quality isn’t really a question anymore, especially since Apple owns Beats now…

Designer: Apple

The Camera of Theseus

Posted: 05 Jun 2017 12:38 PM PDT

Yes, that’s right, design got hit by philosophy! Anyway, as the story goes, the ship of Theseus involves a ship that degraded with time, so each part of it was replaced until the entire ship was made out of new parts. Now the question to ask is, since there isn’t a single original part on the ship, is it still the same ship? Or what if I took all the old discarded parts and put them together, would that be the ship of Theseus?

Following similar logic, design student Paul Kohlhaussen built the Cycloptic Mustard Monster, a camera that combined bits from other cameras, mostly obsolete and discontinued models. The Cycloptic Mustard Monster (I just love that name) is a beautiful example of necessity being the mother of invention. Wanting to shoot larger negatives than the medium format, but not having the money to afford a high-end camera, Paul took the best features from a selection of high-end cameras and combined them into one fully functioning camera at literally a fraction of the cost.

What you’re looking at is a camera with a 3D printed housing that holds together parts from a Mamiya 7, Hasselblad XPan, and a design inspired by the Leica M Series. The lens at the front-end of the camera is a Schneider Kreuznach 90mm Super Angulon. Its design served as the starting point for the aesthetic of the rest of the camera.

In the future Paul hopes to make this camera affordable and available for many who want quality at an affordable price. The design also stands to be adapted based on the availability and the brand/make of parts. For now, it’s contesting for a Student Grant from none other than 3D Hubs. If you want to take a look at the kind of pictures this beauty can click, head over to Paul’s website here!

Designer: Paul Kohlhaussen

(via Core77)