Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

Watch with an automotive soul

Posted: 19 Sep 2017 12:18 PM PDT

The Icon Duesey Watch looks beautiful, but it also looks familiar to some. If you’re wondering why, it’s because the watch takes direct inspiration from the original Duesenberg tachometer. In fact the watch was made by an automobile designer. When Jonathan Ward isn’t designing some of the most capable off-road 4×4 vehicles for ICON4X4, he collects watches, so it’s just natural that the two interests would collide to create a hallmark timepiece inspired by a hallmark brand of race cars and luxury automobiles in the 20s.

The watch comes built in a grade 2 titanium body with a sandblasted finish and a grade 5 titanium bezel that holds together a double domed sapphire crystal. Beneath the crystal lies an immaculately polished onyx stone dial that showcases the hour and minutes in the classic Duesenberg inspired style. On the inside of the watch lies a Dubois-Depraz Automatic 14400 module with an ETA 2892-A2 base and a custom-made oscillating weight built from tungsten alloy visible from the clear back, completely detailed with yellow gold plated markings and Icon’s signature lizard logo in polished brass. The lizard makes its appearance on the crown of the watch too! Complete with alligator leather straps and a titanium tongue buckle, the Icon Duesey doesn’t come cheap! But why would it, after all, it’s an Icon!

Designer: Jonathan Ward (ICON4X4)

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Your City Never Looked this Pretty!

Posted: 19 Sep 2017 07:04 AM PDT

On the one hand you’ve got Google Maps, a symbol of accurate satellite imagery and functionality, and then you’ve got doodle maps, that make you marvel your city in an absolutely different light. That’s what Mini Cloud Studios wants to do. Turn city planning into works of art with their series of Modern Map Art Prints.

The studio takes comprehensive, intricate maps of cities/districts/neighborhoods completely detailed with buildings, roadways, rivers/rivulets, and other civic details like bridges, etc., and superimposes colors from a range of color palettes. The color palettes come in an exquisite set of swatches spanning across three categories, namely Retro-Vintage with its subdued yet timeless color swatches, Modern Bright with its vibrant color selections almost reminiscent of pop-art, and Classic which experiments with monochromes and shades of gray.

People can choose exactly what map they want by entering their city and zooming in or out to select the exact rectangular footprint of their city they want immortalized in print. You can also choose up to five different color schemes to preview your print in. Then based on the City+Color pairing, you get to choose one final variant that you can have printed and framed.

The Modern Map Art Prints gives a completely different dimension to cartography. While most people often look at vintage (usually hand-drawn) maps as collectible works of art, the Modern Maps turn framed map-prints into something much more contemporary and highly personal because it’s your city/neighborhood. Plus, with that absolutely delicious color scheme, you’ll fall in love with your city all over again!

Designer: David Hoe

BUY NOW: $24.00

Colour Themes
Choose between vintage, modern and classic colour themes. Themes will be finalized and sent along with map previews to backers once funding is over, ensuring that there’s a range to suit your taste/room decor.

Stockholm and London

Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur

San Francisco and New York

Tokyo x Ice Lolly

Close-up

Paris x Lavender Forest

Close-up

BUY NOW: $24.00

No Battery? No Working Cables?

Posted: 19 Sep 2017 04:01 AM PDT

Sick of scrambling through those cables in your bag? Unable to separate your charging cable from your headphones? Me too! Driven by tech user’s common difficulties with everyday smartphone accessories, nolii was born. The nolii family range of products has been designed by Benjamin Hubert of LAYER to keep you connected, wherever you are. The inaugural collection comprises five key products – Couple, Bundle, Keep, Set, Stack. Together, they form an intelligent eco-system of accessories that make your relationship with technology – and the people you connect with – effortless.

“We believe in doing more with the tools you have, so you can be more focused on the important things in life.” said Hubert, expressing the need to say goodbye to “chaotic cords” and “broken cables”. Nolii does exactly that, with it’s contemporary, minimalistic design and purposefully chosen materials which challenge conventional tech patterns.

nolii is a partnership between Benjamin Hubert, founder and director of strategic design agency LAYER, and tech and design entrepreneur Asad Hamir. Next week Hubert and Hamir will greet the world with the nolii brand and inaugural collection at the launch of Design Frontiers, bringing 30-or-so multi-disciplinary designers to Somerset House at London Design Festival.

Designers: Benjamin Hubert & Asad Hamir

Couple
A versatile smartphone case which is not only designed to showcase the phone’s original form but integrates a twist-clip for interchangeable accessories. These being – a battery with the ability to fully charge your phone – and a wallet to carry several cards when you want to travel light.

Bundle
A heavy duty cable made to last. Bundle has an inbuilt loop which allows the user the option to stow away the cable in a know-like shape when not in use. The Bundle isn’t just all good looks, it’s got brains too. Bundle comes with optional USB storage, allowing the user to backup what is really important.

Keep
The ultimate – bring everywhere and anywhere – accessory. Smartphone batteries can be highly unpredictable and run out just when you least need it to. Keep has an inbuilt battery pack with a burst of power enough to bring a smartphone from 1% to 40%. With 5GB of storage and Bluetooth tracking, Keep is the accessory that keeps on giving.

Set
It appears that traveling means bringing every cable and plug your own with you in fear of something running out of juice. Set is an all-in-one power pack designed to combat against this. Using the plug, you can charge from a mains socket. Using the battery pack, you can charge on the go. What makes this product truly wonderful, when the plug and battery are connected you can even charge your device too. No more deciding what’s more important, the phone or the portable power bank.

Stack
Stack is the ultimate charging solution for ALL of your devices – smartphone, tablet, laptop. Stack gets its name as it comprises of two batteries – a large battery and a smaller battery. The smaller battery can be separated and used for compact charging on the go. Stack, the multi-functional charging pack covers the changing needs of a busy user throughout the day.

Anti-drowning Drones

Posted: 19 Sep 2017 01:21 AM PDT

Robots and drones might be replacing jobs but that doesn’t mean it’s always a bad thing! The Amphibious Joint-Lifeguard UAV is one example that makes perfect sense if we can pull it off.

Whether it’s at the beach or a pool, the idea is that a drone can reach a drowning individual much faster than another human who has to swim a distance before making a rescue. Designed to be introduced into regular rescue practice, this UAV can be controlled by lifeguards as a first response solution. It can fly directly overhead before being safely lowered to the individual in need. Once it arrives, they can climb on board and float to safety. In more serious circumstances where the person is unresponsive, the drone can provide temporary floatation until rescuers can arrive.

Amphibious Joint-Lifeguard UAV is a Winner of the 2017 Red Dot Concept Award.

Designer: Sarsenbek Hazken

Strictly for the style-conscious

Posted: 18 Sep 2017 06:00 PM PDT

Most folding knives go for the rugged/jagged aesthetic… and for obvious reasons. However, the Gerber Pocket Square Knife isn’t like most knives. Probably one of the most design-conscious tactical knives I’ve seen in my lifetime, Gerber’s knife embraces minimalism and conscious detailing in a way that soothes the soul!

The Gerber Pocket Square Knife was designed to blend stylishly with your regular EDC, allowing it to become a knife you carry for its style quotient first, and its superior build and functionality second. Designed with a machined aluminum handle that feels great to the touch (like almost all smartphones made today), this sleek blade is equipped with a 3″ drop point 7Cr17MoV Stainless Steel blade. The handle also features a liner lock, a removable and reversible tip-up pocket clip, while the blade comes with a beautifully textured ambidextrous thumb lift that allows you to unfold the blade using either hand. Will you look at that beautiful, minimal, slick handle though!

Designer: Gerber

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Dock Stock and Two Smoking Gadgets!

Posted: 18 Sep 2017 03:00 PM PDT

So. Samsung’s pretty innovative, but doesn’t get enough credit for it. Samsung managed to crack facial recognition first, it even managed to pull off mass-produced edge-to-edge displays long before the Essential phone or the iPhone X… So, looking at the Dex Book concept, I wouldn’t be surprised seeing the words Samsung written on it.

The Dex Book attempts to do the phone-docking-into-laptop trick. The laptop itself is devoid of a number pad to make space for the phone, and even does away with a track pad at the bottom. The phone docks into the empty space where the number pad would be and the two gadgets immediately pair up. The phone then becomes a track-pad and secondary screen for the laptop, while the laptop itself becomes an extension of the phone, allowing you to use your smartphone as a full fledged workstation!

Designers: Kwanjun Ryu & Jaejin Bong

A personalized, palm-sized drum-kit!

Posted: 18 Sep 2017 12:07 PM PDT

While there are quite a few MIDI keypads that allow you to digitally assign custom sounds to each key, Drummy makes things more hands on, analog, plug-n-play. You literally build your 9-piece drum kit by laying out custom buttons across the Drummy’s base. Each button corresponds to a particular instrument like a kick, or a snare, or a hi-hat. Symbols on the keys become graphical denotations of what each button does. You can literally plug buttons in and build your own MIDI drum-pad that connects to any music-making DAW (digital audio workstation) you may use on your computer!

Drummy tests your hand-eye coordination while allowing you to develop a keen eye for symbols and button placement. It also allows you to build your personal drum set from scratch, choosing between instruments, making sure you pick the best 9 sounds! And no, it doesn’t occupy a tonne of space in your garage or bedroom. In fact, the Drummy fits right into any bag!

Designer: Ivan Shmatko for Drummy