Yanko Design - Form Beyond Function

The Day the Phone Overtook the DSLR

Posted: 27 Mar 2018 09:40 AM PDT

UPDATE: Less than 48 hours left, grab yours now!

When you buy a DSLR, you’re bound to spend a buck or two on a few lenses that let you shoot different subjects, in different conditions. ShiftCam 2.0 ensures that this very philosophy carries forward to the smartphone camera too. Designed to give ultimate photographing power to one of the most versatile and popular cameras out there, the ShiftCam 2.0 pulls out all the stops and gives the iPhone camera incredible flexibility and you, the user, unbelievable amounts of freedom.

The ShiftCam 2.0’s design brief was probably “make something for everyone”. Its case comes with a wide variety of lenses and lens choices that you can swap based on your usage. If you’re the Insta-enthusiast, there’s something for you, if you just want incredible selfies, there’s a little something for you, and if you’re the pro user who wants to exploit the camera’s abilities to the max, there’s something for you too.

In just a year since it made its debut on Kickstarter, ShiftCam’s managed to change the mobile photography game with its innovative lens-swapping system (it also secured the CES Innovation Award). Designed to fit six lenses into a case that sat around your iPhone, the original ShiftCam gave you wide-angle, fisheye, telephoto, and macro capabilities by simply allowing you to snap lenses to the front of your smartphone camera with precision. The ShiftCam 2.0 does more and does it better, bringing to focus the company’s 15 years of expertise in optics. ShiftCam 2.0 comes with a precise lens swapping system, allowing you to choose from a wide variety of lens types. Your pledge gets you the legacy 6-in-1 lens set, perfect for incredible pictures on the go. The 6-in-1 lens set can be removed and swapped for ShiftCam’s front-facing wide angle lens, giving you the power to see and capture more with your front-facing camera, making for some incredibly inclusive selfies. ShiftCam 2.0 also comes with some remarkable professional lenses as a part of their PRO kit (the lenses available are Pro Wide Angle, Pro Telephoto, 238° Pro Fisheye, Pro Macro, Pro Long-Range Macro), giving you near-DSLR perfection with your smartphone. Adding the power of precision optics to your phone’s remarkably capable camera sensor and algorithm, the PRO kit’s professional lenses can be easily used for work, capturing stunning, crisp, detailed images in RAW format using third-party camera apps.

There have always been distinctions between cameras meant for work and play. ShiftCam 2.0 blurs that distinction. Taking your phone’s highly capable camera and empowering it with fine optics, the ShiftCam 2.0 completely elevates your phone photography game, rivaling it with bigger and more expensive professional camera gear to show that professional and portable can coexist. With ShiftCam 2.0, the biggest innovation in photography is also physically its smallest one yet!

Designer: ShiftCam

Click here to Buy Now: $49.00 $69.00

ShiftCam 2.0 is a comprehensive set of 6 camera-enhancing lenses in 1 convenient and portable iPhone case. The shifting mechanism allows users to get the most out of their dual camera feature.

Introducing their Pro Lens Collection

Used in conjunction with the ShiftCam 2.0 iPhone case, these groundbreaking interchangeable Pro-grade lenses give users the freedom to capture images of the highest-quality without the expensive, heavyweight equipment.

Click here to Buy Now: $49.00 $69.00

Just The Right Amount Of Sock

Posted: 27 Mar 2018 06:43 AM PDT

The NOSO sock is like a beanie for your feet! Designed to cover just the essentials, so that wearing socks are faster and easier, the NOSO socks don’t need to be matched with the shoes you wear. They sit around your toes, behaving just like socks would, while allowing the rest of your foot to breathe. The half-sock design means less wear and tear, and no slipping off when you remove your footwear.

The NOSO toe-beanies (as I shall now call them) are perfect for when you want to wear socks without showing them. Ideal for sandals or low cut shoes (or any footwear aside from slippers to be honest), the NOSO sits on your feet without popping up around the ankles. Unlike old socks where the elastic wears off, or new socks where the elastic is too tight and cuts into your skin, the NOSO does the job discreetly.

Its half-sock design acts as a perfect bit of extra protection in the winters too. The NOSO can be worn right on top of socks as an extra layer to keep your toes warm. Additionally, you can even use the NOSO to fashionably cover up holes you may have in your socks in what I can only describe as the most fashionable bachelor life-hack.

The NOSO come in a variety of colors and are made from moisture absorbent air-textured yarn. Made for everyone from the guy who wants the barefoot experience without the stink, or the person who wants to wear socks without having them show up around the ankles, to the person who just wants their toes to stay extra toasty in the winter, the NOSO is just the right amount of sock… and YD readers who back the project get an extra NOSO pair for FREE. Just make sure to message them to claim!

Designer: Bong’s Apparel

Click here to Buy Now: $3.00 $5.00 Hurry, ONLY for 48 hours!

YD readers who back the project get an extra NOSO pair for FREE. Just make sure to message them to claim!

Walking should never be annoying. NOSO stays on even when you take your shoes off. No band or silicon strip, NOSO conforms naturally to the curvature of your forefoot.

Click here to Buy Now: $3.00 $5.00 Hurry, ONLY for 48 hours!

YD readers who back the project get an extra NOSO pair for FREE. Just make sure to message them to claim!

Oh No They Didn’t With the Mouse

Posted: 27 Mar 2018 04:40 AM PDT

Take everything you know about the computer mouse, crumple it up, set it on fire and toss it out the window. Now, meet, Cone. This twist on the design is a whole lot more aesthetically appealing if not entirely more ergonomic than the traditional mouse.

Its upright, pointed form is a total wrist saver. It instantaneously positions your hand, arm, and fingers in a natural position that reduces strain on the metatarsals and upper hand by allowing a portion of the weight to be distributed across the conical surface. The buttons are articulated in such a way that the fingers can curl naturally and click with ease. Better yet, the all-new design is interchangeable for users with both right and left dominant hands.

Designer: Inyeop Baek

If Norman Keith Collins was into BMX…

Posted: 27 Mar 2018 12:00 AM PDT

Bicycle tire tracks come in all shapes and sizes but none quite like the Sailor. This all-new BMX tire concept takes nautical inspiration and applies it to two wheels on land. Not just for good grip, the recessed anchor and rope designs are rooted in the American serviceman’s interpretation of traditions and symbols that go back thousands of years. Whether you’re into the whole Sailor Jerry look or not, it’s an undeniably cool concept with serious potential for massive market reach with unlimited aesthetic variations and styles!

Designer: Kenavanh Phommasene

A Watch That Puts The Sky On Your Wrist

Posted: 26 Mar 2018 06:32 PM PDT

UPDATE: Less than 48 hours left, grab yours now!

There’s a certain beauty to the complexity of the Horizon watch. It’s visually completely different from watches we’ve seen, but conceptually, feels familiar. It explores the duality of day and night with a beautiful dual colored dial, depicting daylight and darkness. The line in between those two colors becomes the horizon between the two times of the day, and hence the name.

The Horizon puts the entire day on your wrist with its 24-hour format. The way it does it feels completely natural as compared to most 24 hour watches that need getting used to. Reading the time on the Horizon is as simple as looking at the sky and knowing intuitively what time of the day it is… a simple act every human, animal, and even plant participates in.

The watch’s rotating centerpiece is at the heart of its experience. While most watches have rotating hands and a static dial, the Horizon’s dial rotates as the hand (a red line) stays in its static position. Think of the hand as you, and the dial as the sky. The way the Horizon behaves is much like the sky rotating and changing above you while you yourself stay static. Reading the time is as simple as following yourself, i.e., the red hand. The dial makes one rotation every 24 hours and its dual color acts as a natural, visual AM/PM indicator.

The Horizon is a marvel of Swiss engineering coupled with a unique, progressive design vision. The lack of hands makes the watch look flatter and therefore sleeker, while it cleverly uses its bezel as a design detail, adding the red reference line on it, and therefore including it in the watch’s experience. This allows the watch to appear wonderfully larger than life, as it dominates your wrist. Aside from the Horizon and reference lines, not a single part of the watch has any straight lines. The body of the watch itself comes with a comfortable curve that looks and feels soft and inviting. Within the body lies a 515.24 Ronda movement (with a 45-month power reserve). The watch comes in a variety of styles that mix and match hues for the days and nights, and more importantly, an ambidextrous design that allows for both left-handed as well as right-handed usage.

There’s something unique yet so natural about the way the Horizon tells time. It takes cues from timekeeping techniques over the years, following the age-old practice of visually telling the time by looking at the sky, and combining it with the modern method of assigning numbers in the form of hours and minutes to our day. In every which way, it celebrates beauty in duality. The duality of day and night, of old and new, and of legacy and innovation!

Designer: Gordon Fraser

Click here to Buy Now: $395.00 $569.00

The FLAGSHIP

The FLAGSHIP, with unmistakable presence and an almost instantly identifiable colour way. Featuring a distinctive yellow and grey rotating dial, nestled in a polished stainless steel case, this is the iconic look only possible with an OPTIK INSTRUMENT.

The NAVIGATOR

The NAVIGATOR is inspired by vintage night-view aircraft gauges – imitating the glow of the dial markings in the darkness. The NAVIGATOR features a midnight blue, grey and yellow colour scheme, coupled with the black DLC coated case – it’s a stunning visual treat.

The TECHNIK

The TECHNIK has a slide-rule feel with the multiple zoned dial and vivid teal and orange flash. The colour scheme is inspired by off-shore rescue services, and is held within a sand-blasted stainless steel case.

The BILLET

Appearing like it’s hewn from one block of steel, the BILLET version features a dual grey dial to designate night & day. Crisp black lines and red flashes bring a touch of elegance. The brushed flange adds some visual sparkle from above. An unmistakable OPTIK INSTRUMENT, perfect for matching with the business suit or casual weekend wardrobe.

How It Works

The central disc rotates once in 24 hours; the time is referenced at the red line.

That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. What is clever about the HORIZON design is that the more you use it, the more accustomed you get to the position of the disc during a day. Over time you will be able to tell the time at a glance, just by looking at the angle of the horizon.

Resolutions

The HORIZON can be read in any of 3 ways depending on how accurately you need the time; the first is broadly using the horizon position, something you will get accustomed to the more you use the HORIZON. The second is using the main way-points to more closely read the time – main hours and the half-hour dots. The last is using all the reference markings to gauge more precisely what the time is.

Click here to Buy Now: $395.00 $569.00

A roof for you, a home for your furry friends

Posted: 26 Mar 2018 02:08 PM PDT

If you’ve ever wanted to wake up to the chirping of birds, the Birdhouse Tiles are the best way to go about it. Not just a roof above your head, these tiles provide roofs above the heads of birds too. Integrating a birdhouse into the ceramic tile, the Birdhouse tiles can be used alongside regular ones, letting you put as many birdhouses you want on your roof.

Designed in consultation with Vogelbescherming Nederland (a Dutch organization that is concerned with protecting avian life), the Birdhouse helps support and house local birds, letting them flourish instead of dying out or migrating. Inside the Birdhouse, underneath the roof tile, a carefully designed nesting basket made of wood and bird screen is attached. This nesting basket ensures good ventilation, prevents the birds from moving to other empty spots underneath your roof and makes it really easy to clean the nest after a breeding period.

By installing one or more of these Birdhouse roof tiles, you give birds a safe haven to nest and raise their chicks. Instead of crawling under the roof tiles to build a nest and becoming pests rather than pets, the birds can now linger in their own cozy terracotta row houses!

Designer: Klaas Kuiken

Click Here to Buy Now

Click Here to Buy Now